THE HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY
The history of the Red Monastery, formerly called Lechnický (according to its affiliation to the cadastre of the village of Lechnica), dates back to the first half of the 14th century. Bloodshed is behind the foundation of the monastery. With the extinction of the last Arpads on the Hungarian royal throne of Andrew III, in 1301, difficult, unstable conditions arose in the country. Two serious candidates applied for the crown - Karol Róbert from the Anjou family and Václav from the Přemyslid family. Such a rivalry has always brought unrest and disarray to the life of the country, and it was no different in Spiš.
After 1301, the two strong aristocratic Berzeviczy and Görgey families took different positions. The Lords of Brezovice supported Karol Róbert on the Hungarian throne, while the Lords of Hrhov supported his opponent Václav, who was crowned king as Ladislav V. Tensions between the two families also increased property disagreements, especially when conditions in the country developed once in favor of one, then the second genus. Tensions between the two genders grew into a contention of property. The situation became seriously dramatized when Kokos' man Hynam Lank killed Friedrich, the son of comedian Arnold of the Görgey family. The lords of Hrhov filed a lawsuit against Master Kokoš. The conciliation court in Levoča issued a verdict in 1307, on the basis of which Master Kokoš was obliged to pay a fine of 200 hryvnia, make a penitent pilgrimage to 4 places, have 4,000 funeral masses served for the soul of the murdered man and establish, resp. to support 6 monasteries. The foundation of the monastery required a large space on which all the buildings would be spread. And so in 1319 Kokoš donated his village Lechnica with the adjoining area to the Carthusians from Letanoviec (Lapis Refugii, today's Kláštorisko). The Spiš Chapter allowed the establishment of a monastery and King Karol Róbert confirmed its founding charter in 1320. Construction of the monastery began after 1330. The Carthusians chose a place surrounded by nature itself, in the most beautiful corner of Zamaguria.
The Carthusians in the Red Monastery began with a temporary construction in the first stage. A wooden building was created, which was gradually rebuilt into a monastery made of stone and brick. Already in the first half of the 14th century, the Carthusians built separate houses for the search, with gardens. In 1360, the construction of the most important monastery building, the church, began. The work was carried out in accordance with faithfully established rules, because the monk had developed its own type of church building - without a tower and side naves. The consecration of the church and the place itself to St. Anthony the Hermit was not accidental. The Carthusians chose him as their patron as a model of contemplativity. The church was connected to a small cloister and at the same time to a large cloister, which connected the residential houses - the hermitages of the searches. We assume it looked something like this.
At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the monastery was renovated, especially the convent and the chapter hall. From the north side, they added a new entrance courtyard to the monastery complex with a large farm building (barns, granaries). There was a hospice and a hospital by the east wall. The monastery mill stood at the southeast corner.
Hermitages were built around the perimeter of the inner courtyard of the monastery. A separate garden was attached to each house on an area of approximately the same size (approximately 9 × 9 m).
In 1351, the monastery became organizationally independent from the mother monastery in Letanovce and gradually became an important church center on the Hungarian-Polish border. He acquired large plots of land through donations and purchases and received important privileges, including the right to fish on the Dunajec, the right to mill, the right to brew beer and the right to exercise local jurisdiction. In addition, in 1472, Lechnická kartúza acquired property from Ján Felkes and Ladislav Szatmak, 10 vineyards in the Tokaj region. King Matej Korvín of Hungary donated 18 florins (medieval gold coins) to the monastery every year. In 1494 Vladislav II, King of Hungary, freed the cartouche from fees and tolls when transporting wine to neighboring Poland. In 1501, King Vladislav II decided that the monks would receive three rings of white cloth, two tons of fish and a ton of oil from the Košice thirty. In 1518, the Polish King Sigismund the Old confirmed the privileges granted by his Carthusian predecessors in Lechnice. At the same time, he allowed them to fish on both banks of the Dunajec and confirmed the right to cross the mill.
In the 15th century, the flourishing of the monastery was interrupted by the invasion of Hussite troops from Bohemia. He became the target of sleepy rides under the leadership of Ján Pardus from Hrádek and Fridrich from Strážnice. The most difficult moments in the monastery community occurred during the first Hussite invasion in 1431, when they kidnapped the monastery's priori, burned down and looted its premises. During the second invasion in 1433, the monastery was looted again. Even after the Hussite invasions, there were no peaceful times for the monastery to rise. The reason was the fraternal troops, which in the years 1447 - 1448 not only attacked both Spiš cartouches, but also settled here and built field fortresses. Their long-term presence resulted in the decay of the monastery and the economic decline of the local communities.
The turmoil in the country, the beginning of the Reformation, the dual government and the struggle for the throne between Ferdinand of Habsburg and John of Poland led to outbreaks of religious intolerance. Both Spiš cartouches suffered from a breakdown in the country. They began to lose property and became the target of raids. Gradually, the monks left the monastery and left for quieter Poland, Austria and Moravia. In 1563, the monastery was abolished, and with the death of the last prairie, it was practically destroyed.
After the departure of the Carthusian monks from the Lechnice Monastery, the building lost its character as a spiritual abode. From 1563, the Spiš post office Juraj Bornemisza took over the management of his property. From 1569 the entire property passed into the hands of secular owners. First it was the Magóczi family, then Štefan Tököli and Juraj Horváth. After his death in 1625, Pavol Rákoczy acquired the property. Count Pavol Rákoczy supported the restoration of the monastery for personal reasons, because he stayed with his family in the monastery longer than its former owners. It was owned by this important aristocratic family until 1699, when Alžbeta Rákoczyová sold it for 30,000 to the Bishop of Nitra, Ladislav Maťašovský. In 1704, Maťašovský bequeathed the Kamaldul Monastery in Nitra, which was based in Nitra. At the beginning of the 18th century, a strictly oriented community of monks came to the monastery again.
After their arrival in Zamagurie, they focused their attention on the reconstruction and contributed to the renovation of the entire monastery complex, which they gradually repaired in accordance with the needs of the order. Some buildings were rebuilt in the Baroque style, some were completed, and so in the middle of the 18th century the monastery received its final form, in which we admire it to this day.
In 1747, the repaired and repainted single-nave Gothic church of St. Anton Pustovník with new furniture. According to the Carthusian tradition, the church did not have a tower. It was added in 1750. On the tower in a niche they placed a sandstone sculpture of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, which currently adorns a small cloister. For Kamaldul's church, he received a rich polychrome stucco decoration and a painting made by Italian masters.
As part of the enclosure, they rebuilt the monk's houses. Of the original 13 hermitages, 10 have been preserved. At present, three have been restored and seven are in a stone torsional condition.
In 1754, they restored the entrance wing of the monastery courtyard and built a second, outer farmyard. Opposite the new western entrance gate in the 1st courtyard, in a hill called "Uhliská", they built a stone chapel (today only ruins) for passers-by. They took good care of the monastery garden bordering the banks of the Dunajec. The garden later became a park, where the inhabitants later planted lindens. The Lechnice parish built next to the monastery garden a sculpture of the Holy Trinity with the inscription 1768, which is still clearly visible today. Anton Pustovník and his place in the park is a faithful copy.
In the economic tradition, Kamaldul monks followed their predecessors. As early as 1718, they managed to restore the glassworks in Lesnice. The glass workshops belonging to the monastery were in Richwald (Veľká Lesná) and Reľov. Outside the walls of the monastery, there were also fields with grain and legumes. The monks had the right to fish on the Dunajec, the right to collect customs duties. They operated a mill. There was also a depot, cattle stables and a malt warehouse in the courtyards of the monastery. With these activities, the monks covered their modest needs and also helped other people in the area.
Thanks to the Kamalddulovs, the Red Monastery, unfortunately through the works of two prominent personalities: Father Romuald Hadbavny (and his translation of the Holy Scriptures - Kamaldul Bible) and the phrasus Cyprian (the creator of the so-called Cyprian's Herbarium), made an unforgettable history of Slovak culture.
After his accession to the throne, Emperor Joseph II, the son of Maria Theresa, decided to abolish many monasteries as part of his reforms, including the Red Monastery. The imperial decree, which was read in the Red Monastery on April 24, 1782, ordered the monk to leave the monastery by September 24. The monks left the monastery to other monasteries and the buildings of our monastery only fell into disrepair for the next few years.
In 1820, Emperor Francis I donated the monastery and its associated land and property to the newly established Greek Catholic Diocese based in Prešov as part of the basis for its material and financial security. However, after years of re-emergence, after the abolition of serfdom in Hungary in 1848, the monastery began to decline significantly and its condition ended in 1907, when the monastery burned down.
THE PRESENT OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES
After the First World War, the monastery was rented by the Club of Slovak Tourists and Skiers in Prešov. A tourist dormitory was established here and some buildings were repaired with the help of the state and the Spiš Historical Association.
Extensive building reconstruction of the monastery complex took place in the years 1956 - 1966 and partially continued until the 80s of the 20th century. In 2007, the 1st stage of demanding restoration work in the church of St. Anton the Hermit and the church were opened to the public as part of the museum exhibition. The first exposition in the monastery was established by the East Slovak Museum in Košice and opened to the general public on June 5, 1966. In the years 2001 - 2007, the Ľubovňa Museum from Stará Ľubovňa presented its exposition in the monastery.
The buildings of the monastery, after a major reconstruction, served mainly as an outdoor school for children from western Slovakia, especially from Bratislava. Generations of children have spent several weeks of school stays in nature or ski tours or summer camps.
Since 2008, visitors have been given access to the museum exposition, which was established by the Monuments Office of the Slovak Republic when it took over the monastery and CYPRIAN, but in cooperation with the East Slovak Museum.
At present, in addition to the museum, there is also a historically furnished pub from the 18th century, a shop with handmade souvenirs and monastic herbs, and the building also offers monastic accommodation.
Every year, the museum prepares several events, concerts, educational activities, lectures and the extremely popular Monastery Cultural Summer and at the end of the Monastery Days season for visitors.
Accommodation
The Red Monastery Museum offers its guests unusual monastery accommodation with the possibility of breakfast in the building of the former farm building in the first courtyard. There are 5 double rooms and 1 apartment of a higher category.
Room offer:
Standard room offers:
2 single beds
extra bed
bathroom with toilet and shower
television
kettle, cups, glasses, fridge
The higher category room offers:
double bed
baby bed
sofa
bathroom with toilet and shower
television
small kitchen with basic equipment for preparing drinks and less demanding meals
fridge with freezer
Accommodated guests can also use the benefits:
Accommodation price list:
Room1 bed2 bedsextra bedStandard without breakfast17, - € 34, - € 10, - € Standard with breakfast (breakfast is served in a stylishly furnished pub under the linden trees in the monastery) 21, - € 42, - € 14, - € With higher standard without breakfast22 , - € 44, - € 12, - € With higher standard with breakfast26, - € 52, - € 14, - €
Reception for guests:
at the museum box office during opening hours
Tel: +421 52 482 2057
Mobile: 0911 325 250
CHECK IN: from 2 pm during the opening hours of the museum
CHECK OUT: until 10.00
According to individual requirements based on the agreement, the arrival can be adjusted as needed outside the museum's opening hours.
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