About the monastery

The Zlatá Koruna Monastery is listed as a National Historic Monument. It is a compactly preserved architectural ensemble of medieval Cistercian monastic settlements and a treasury of Early and High Gothic architecture.

The grounds of the former Cistercian monastery, founded by King Přemysl Otakar II on a rocky promontory deep in the Vltava river valley in 1263, is one of the best preserved medieval monasteries in Bohemia. The unique Chapel of the Guardian Angels, the Capitular Hall and the cloister represent peak evidence of Cistercian building art in the early and late Gothic period. The main guided tour takes visitors through the little and the great convent and culminates in the Convent Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which is the largest church in South Bohemia. The tour shows the everyday life of the order, the form of monastic libraries, study rooms and the refectory. The second tour circuit presents the development of literature in Southern Bohemia and the literary links between Czech, German and Latin scholarship in a modern interactive way. Since 2013, the restored Gothic abbey chapel of St. George, which was originally personally used by abbot himself, has been opened, for the first time in history.