Zice Charterhouse

Žiče was founded around 1160 in a closed valley chosen for its silence, and it was the first Carthusian house established outside the order's original Romance-speaking territory; for a time its prior headed the whole order. Joseph II dissolved it in 1782 and the buildings were quarried and left to fall, so what stands now is a roofless Gothic church, the walls of the cloister ranges and outbuildings, consolidated and opened. A restored gatehouse holds a collection on the herbal pharmacy the monks ran.

What you actually see

• The roofless church - Gothic walls and window tracery open to the sky.
• The cloister ranges - the outlines of cells and communal buildings.
• The pharmacy collection - a display on the monastery's herbal tradition.
• The closed valley - the deliberately silent site the Carthusians chose.

When to go

April to October; winter opening is limited and the ruins are exposed. Summer concerts are held in the church shell. Rain makes the grass and stone slippery.

Honest expectations

It is a ruin, and visitors expecting a preserved monastery will find walls and grass. Interpretation is limited and largely in Slovene. Facilities are minimal outside the gatehouse cafe.

Nearby

Slovenske Konjice is north, and Rogla is northwest.