Secrets of the old monastery

A Romanesque Cistercian monastery, founded in 1144–1145 and later burned by the Hussites, originally stood on the site of today's village. Some houses built among its ruins retain Romanesque and early-Gothic walls. Underground passages run beneath the village, and monastic treasures are thought to be hidden under some houses. When house No.39, containing the finest remains, was sold, G. Auerspergová, former co-owner of Zelená Hora, reserved ‘for all future time’ half of any treasures anyone might find there. Monks supposedly hid valuables in ravines of nearby Štědrý hill (665 m) above Vrčeň: golden statues of twelve apostles, a silver carriage with a golden shield, church vessels and other treasures. The monastery supposedly had several similar towers, although Cistercian monasteries were not meant to have towers at all. In the eastern tower stood five angels whose movable swan-feather wings seemed alive. An ingenious mechanism invented by a monk moved them rhythmically. The western tower was a lookout, with a main underground passage leading to the summit of Zelená hora. In the monastery's eastern part was a church inaccessible to ordinary mortals. Thirteen maidens guarded the entrance. They had to fear nothing, and every thirteen years their courage was tested: the earth parted and terrifying monsters emerged, filling onlookers with sacred horror. Once all but three brave guardians fled and were punished with five days of blindness. The monastery school stood on its north side. Jan Velflín, later St John of Nepomuk, studied there. Strange lights and images in the air were also reported in the monastery and towers, perhaps produced by a magic lantern. (See Nepomuk, Zelená Hora.)