Follow the monuments of Roundice nad Labem
You can follow the monuments of Roudnice along a special roundtrip with a number of stops at selected monuments. The starting point is a signpost at the Roudnice castle.
Complete information, advice and tips for the trip can be found in the Information and Transport Center of Podřipsko. Here you can also buy tickets to the castle and chateau, if you would like to add an expert explanation to your trip.
Stops
Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Augustinian Monastery
The monastery was founded for the new order of Augustinian canons by Bishop John IV. from Dražice.
The foundation stone was set in 1333 and the construction took over 20 years. The monastery complex consists of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the building of the convent, of which three wings of the cloister around the “Garden of Eden,” out of which a capitul hall and the area of the former library have been preserved. The church has the form of a basilica triple-hull with a long choir.
Throughout the 14th century, the Roudnice order showed graet activity. At the end of this century, 30 canons were registered here. The first bigger blow hit the monastery in 1421 during the campaign of Jan Žižka of Trocnov from Litoměřice to Prague, when it was destroyed and burned by the Hussites. In 1431, Roudnice ceased to be owned by the Prague archbishops and came under the administration of the secular feudal lord Jan Smiřický. The turning point for the local monastery was the year 1603, when the Roudnice estate fell into the hands of the Lobkowicz family. The wife of Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel of Lobkowicz, Polyxena (born on Pernštejn), demanded the title of provostship for the local parish in 1594.
The monastery was hit by fire several times, but it did not undergo a major reconstruction until 1725, when it was rebuilt by the most important North Bohemian architect of the time, Octavian Broggie. His intervention mainly affected the church in the style of the so-called Baroque Gothic. As part of this reconstruction, the northern part of the cloister had to be demolished. The altars of the side hulls and both side altars in the presbytery date to the second half of the 18th century, their author is the sculptor J. Hennevogel. The main altar is the work of his disciple J. I. König and dates to the end of the 18th century. The pulpit with Rococo decoration was built by the same author in 1777. The walls of the presbytery are decorated with a series of 12 panel paintings of the so-called "Passover Cycle" by the painter Hans Hees and a copy of the votive painting by Jan Oček from Vlašim.
A local attraction is the ore spring flowing out of the monastery. Roudnice got its name from it. When visiting the temple, you can go to the mysterious underground lake.
Photo gallery
Galerie - Chrám Narození Panny Marie, Augustiniánský klášter
