Emauzy Monastery - Prague, Czech Republic
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N 50° 04.318 E 014° 24.968
33U E 458219 N 5546795
Emauzy Monastery - Prague
Waymark Code: WM1647T
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 05/01/2022
Views: 10
During our walks along the right bank of the Vltava we missed one important monument - the Emmaus Monastery. The foundations of the monastery date back to the Middle Ages, but the roof with its two characteristic subtle towers dates back to after World War II. The monastery was severely damaged by bombing at the end of the war in 1945. During subsequent repairs, the monastery received a new roof together with the towers.
"The Pope Clement VI granted the request of Charles IV (Karel IV) and gave his consent for a foundation of a monastery with Slavonic liturgy. The Emmaus Monastery, originally called the Monastery Na Slovanech was founded by Charles IV in 1347 for the Benedictine monks of the Eastern Rite brought in from Dalmatia and Croatia who used Old Church Slavonic as liturgical language. The intention of the emperor was to strengthen ties among the Slavs and contribute to eliminating the schism between the Western and Eastern churches. It was the only Slavonic monastery and the only non-Latin association in western Christendom of the Charles' empire. The monastery became a centre of learning and art. Students of Church Slavonic included Jan Hus, Jerome of Prague and others. A number of illuminated literary treasures were created here, including the Reims Gospel book (Remešský evangeliár). This book made its way from Constantinople, where it was brought by a Hussite mission, all the way to France, where it became a part of the French royal coronation treasure. The entire St. Jerome’s Vulgate, the official Latin version of the Bible, was first translated into Czech at the monastery
The monastery and its new church - a pearl of Bohemian Gothic architecture – were built nearby a small old parish church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, which was allegedly built by Saint Wenceslas. The monastery with the church were finished and ceremonially consecrated by the archbishop Jan Ocko of Vlašim at the presence of Charles IV, his son Wenceslaus IV and important guests on 3 March 1372. On that day, the gospel about Christ’s encounter with his disciples in the village Emmaus was read during the solemn consecration, thus the complex was also called Emmaus. As for the origin of the name, there is also an assumption which says that “Emauzy” was derived from Emmahouse (the house of Ema) which once should have stood at the place of the monastery and belonged to the nearby castle owned by first Bohemian Queen Ema, a daughter of King Conrad of Burgundy.
Before World War II the monastery was integrated into a new urban design of the embankment and the slope under the Emmaus by architect B. Hypšman, who also designed the monastery extension. The church was badly damaged during an American bombing raid on Prague on 14 February 1945. The Association for renewal of the Emmaus Monastery commenced securing work with a support of the citizens immediately after the raid. Damaged Gothic frescoes in the cloister were restored after 1947. In the following years a new reinforced concrete roof frame was built. The reconstruction works were entrusted to the prof. of CUT Oldrich Štefan. In 1964, a non-anonymous competition was held for an architectural design replacing the roof and towers of the destroyed church. The winning submission was made by architect F. M. Cerný, who proposed using an entirely modern design instead of required towers and it was implemented under his guidance. Called couragé, his design is one of the most valuable examples of modern architecture in Prague: It is an asymmetrical 32 metres laminated dominant with a 40 cm thick white concrete construction. The construction has 4 meter high gilded spires with 1.3 kg of 24-carat gold. The spires reach the height of 52 metres and they measure 32 metres up from the moulding. The construction gives an impression that the southern steeple, which is closer to the River, is higher than the other one, but it is not true."
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