Osek Monastery

Osek was founded around 1196 and is one of the oldest Cistercian houses in Bohemia, sitting at the foot of the Ore Mountains where the range meets the brown-coal basin. Its most important survival is the chapter house of about 1240, an early Gothic room with a ribbed vault on slender columns and, in the middle, a stone reading desk of remarkable carving - a lectern of twisted columns, considered one of the finest pieces of thirteenth-century sculpture in the country. The church alongside was rebuilt from 1712 by Octavio Broggio in baroque with an interior of stucco, frescoes and altarpieces. The monastery has had a hard century: the community was expelled twice, the buildings served as an internment camp for German-speaking clergy and then as a store, and the surrounding landscape was reshaped by open-cast mining. Restoration continues and monks have returned.

What you actually see

• A chapter house of about 1240 - early Gothic vaulting on slender columns.
• A carved stone lectern - twisted columns, among the finest Czech sculpture of its date.
• Broggio's baroque church - stucco, frescoes and altarpieces from 1712.
• A hard century - expulsions, internment use and mining right up to the boundary.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Guided tours only, seasonal, and it is a working monastery so access is limited. Restoration is unfinished. The surroundings are a post-mining landscape, which some visitors find bleak.

Nearby

Duchcov is south; the Ore Mountains rise directly behind.