We were going to stay in Plasy for 3-5 days, and wanted to spend our first day in the town. In the morning Vagn and I were just hanging out in our garden, doing nothing, and watching sheep playing in a neighbouring garden.
In the afternoon Vojta, our host, invited us for a guided tour of the former Cistercian monastery of Plasy.
With Vojta and Magreta, his girlfriend:
Vojta used to work in the monastery as a guide, at the times when he didn’t study air traffic. He knows every corner of it, its history, and its present.
The monastery was founded by Prince Vladislav II in 1144. It was burned down in a war in 1421, but rebuilt and restored during later centuries. In the medieval times, Plasy had a sophisticated economical system, and gradually became one of the wealthiest and most powerful monasteries in the Bohemian Kingdom. It remained a significant cultural centre till its confiscation curried out in 1945.
In 1945-1946, the possessions of the monastery were destroyed, stolen or sold out. The current management of the site does a great job in getting the items back and presenting them to the visitors.
We saw beautiful chapels, artfully created spiral staircases, and were astonished by the beautiful paintings on the ceilings:
The life in this monastery wasn’t easy. Monks lived under the motto “pray and work”. Daily activities started at 01:45 a.m. During the day, monks prayed, learned, and worked. In summer time, they ate twice a day (because they worked harder), and in winter time – once a day. Meat was forbidden. On the photo below is a room for studying geography:
The monastery had a sophisticated ventilation system, toilets on each floor, and a state of the art water pressure system. The whole convent is built on 5100 oak piles surmounted with an oak grillage consisting of 500 longitudinal and 1173 transversal beams. Inside the convent, there are two foundation basins whose purpose was to control water level and quality within the whole system. Each basin (photo below) has its own entirely independent system of water conduits with the length of nearly 2 km. In the convent’s so-called Blue Channel there is a plate (blue arrow) with an inscription “Aedificium hoc sine aquis ruet” which means “Without water this structure will tumble down”:
We went for a stroll around the monastery. Clock tower in one of the buildings:
After that exciting 2-hours long excursion Magreta and Vojta had to leave us, as they had a family appointment. Vagn and I found a bottle of semi-dry Soviet sparkling rosé wine (former Soviet champagne) in a local supermarket, and some excellent Ukrainian chocolate, that we enjoyed in our garden. It was +25C; we talked about how fortunate we were to visit Plasy and to learn about the history of this place.
Later we went for a lazy stroll through the town. A monument to the memory of those killed during the WWII:
For dinner, Vagn wanted to try a local beer. He chose the one called “Kozel” which means “goat”:
It was a very nice and relaxing day, some of that spent in a great company of Magreta and Vojta who were so kind to take us around, and show their charming town.