Broumov Monastery

The Benedictine abbey at Broumov was founded in the thirteenth century and rebuilt between 1727 and 1733 by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, whose father Christoph had earlier built the churches of the Broumov group in the villages around - nine baroque churches on one estate, designed as a coherent set, which is a concentration that has no parallel in Central Europe. The abbey library holds about seventeen thousand volumes in a decorated hall. There is a copy of the Turin Shroud made in 1651, one of the older such copies and one of the few made by direct contact with the original. Beside the monastery stands the wooden cemetery church of the Virgin, dated to 1177 and rebuilt in 1450, which makes it among the oldest wooden buildings in Central Europe. The abbey was used to intern religious orders in the 1950s. Restoration since 2010 has turned it into a cultural centre.

What you actually see

• A Dientzenhofer abbey - rebuilt 1727-1733, the centre of a group of nine churches.
• A library of seventeen thousand volumes - in a decorated baroque hall.
• A 1651 Shroud copy - made by direct contact with the Turin original.
• A wooden church of 1177 - rebuilt in 1450, among the oldest in Central Europe.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Guided tours only at set times. The wooden church opens on restricted hours and needs the guide. Reaching the nine village churches needs a car. Broumov is remote and services are limited.

Nearby

The Broumov walls are west; Adrspach-Teplice rocks beyond them.