Pleterje Charterhouse

Pleterje was founded in 1403 and, after long interruptions, refounded by Carthusians in 1899, which makes it the only charterhouse still working in Slovenia. The order lives in silence in individual cells, so the enclosure is closed: visitors see the Gothic church from a viewing gallery, a film about the life, and the shop, where the monastery sells the fruit brandies, wine and honey it makes. An open-air museum of relocated Lower Carniolan farm buildings stands beside the walls.

History

Count Hermann II of Celje founded the charterhouse in 1403 and its building was complete by 1407, and the mystic Nikolaus Kempf was prior here in 1447-1451 and 1462-1467. Archduke Ferdinand II gave it to the Jesuits of Ljubljana in 1595, it became state property in 1772 and passed into private hands in 1839, and in 1899 the Carthusians bought it back and built a new monastery, finished five years later (Wikipedia, Pleterje Charterhouse).

The main sights

• The Gothic church - the surviving early fifteenth-century church, seen from a gallery.
• The monastery products - fruit brandies, wine and honey made and sold by the community.
• The open-air museum - relocated farmhouses and outbuildings of Lower Carniola.
• The enclosure wall - the boundary of a silent community closed to visitors.

When to go

April to October for the open-air museum, which closes for winter. The church gallery and shop keep longer hours. Sundays and feast days bring more visitors.

Before you go

The monastery itself is closed and the visit is essentially a gallery, a film and a shop. Women were long excluded from parts of the site and access rules remain strict. Silence is asked for and enforced.

Nearby

Kostanjevica na Krki is east, and Novo Mesto is northwest.

Key facts