Monastery Gardens

The monastery among the gardens

The gardens belonging to Strahov Monastery include: the Convent Garden, the Abbot's Garden, the Vineyard Lookout, the Lookout at Our Lady of Exile, and the Great Strahov Garden. The entire area around Strahov Monastery falls within the Prague Heritage Reserve. The Convent Garden is part of the monastic enclosure, a place for contemplation, and therefore closed to the public. The Abbot's Garden adjoins the monastery on the eastern side, towards Prague. Currently, it is not accessible, but in the future, part of it will be opened to the public. Adjoining the Abbot's Garden towards Prague is the Vineyard Lookout. The local vineyard grows the Hibernal variety. This place offers an impressive view of the Prague panorama. The Great Strahov Garden extends down the slope below Strahov Monastery towards Prague between Úvoz and Strahovská streets, bordered at the bottom by Vlašská Street and extending up to the Hunger Wall at the top. The upper part above the Raoul Wallenberg scenic path belongs to the monastery and the lower part below this path is owned by the city of Prague. To this day, the garden has been preserved as a fruit orchard with sections of forest, now dominated by maples, but with an aim to restore the oak-hornbeam composition to maintain this biologically significant site. The forest is protected due to the presence of the stag beetle.

Monastery Gardens

The Lookout of Our Lady of Exile

This lookout near the Convent Garden was renovated in the 1990s, and a statue of Our Lady of Exile was installed there. The breathtaking view serves as a reminder of the original Marian column with the statue of the Immaculata on Old Town Square, erected in 1652 in memory of the successful defense of Prague against Swedish troops in 1648. The shadow of the column, which was nearly 14 meters high, also served as a time indicator, showing the so-called Prague meridian at noon. The statue, created by Jan Jiří Bendl, was pulled down by an impassioned crowd on November 3, 1918. Shortly thereafter, as a petition for atonement of this event, a decision was made to create a new statue of the Virgin Mary. This was accomplished in 1954 in Italy. From the collections of compatriots in exile, Alessandro Monteleone (1897 Tauranga – 1967 Rome) crafted a new statue from Carrara marble in 1954, recalling the original form of the demolished sculpture. After being blessed by Papal Nuncio K. Micara at the Czech Papal College in Rome's Nepomucenum, it was erected on May 22, 1955, in the garden of the Czech St. Procopius Benedictine Abbey in Lisle near Chicago. In 1993, it was transported to Prague and on May 7, 1994, it was erected in the garden of Strahov Monastery. On the cartouche in the middle of the pedestal is the inscription “Panno Maria z Exilu oroduj za nás” (Our Lady of Exile, pray for us).

The column on Old Town Square was restored in 2020 and ceremonially consecrated on August 15 by the Archbishop of Prague, Dominik Duka.

History of the Monastery Gardens

Strahov Garden was established on land donated by Prince Vladislav II (later King Vladislav I) in 1140 to the Premonstratensian order for the foundation of the monastery. The spacious land was suitable for establishing vineyards and gardens, part of which was covered by a game reserve. It can be assumed that in the immediate vicinity of the monastery, several gardens were established from its inception: the abbot's garden (below the abbot's residence), the convent garden (below the southern wing of the convent), a vegetable garden (near the farmyard), and a herb garden for the monastery's caregiver (on the slope behind the convent garden). During the Romanesque period, abundant sources of spring water were found on Petřín Hill, which were channeled through underground tunnels to the garden and monastery buildings by Abbot Jan Lohelius between 1586 and 1612, thus ensuring overall irrigation. At that time, the convent garden was being planted with shrubs and flowers. Next to the convent garden, Lohelius established an orchard and began beekeeping. His successor, Abbot Kaspar of Questenberg, continued efforts to enhance the garden, and from 1613 to 1614, he had the monastery gardens separated from the courtyard and economic buildings by a wall. He constructed a summerhouse with a terrace below the abbey and nearby a fountain with a water jet. Around the summerhouse, he planted several exotic trees, of which the Turkish hazel has survived to our times. Simultaneously with Questenberg, the then subprior Armand Fabius, a Belgian who brought his love of flowers and horticultural art from his homeland, was active in the monastery.

Under his leadership, the members of the convent personally tended the garden, creating symbolic patterns with flowers, decorating its corners with ornamental cypresses and dwarf junipers, and forming arbors and gazebos from shaped trees. Linden trees were planted in the courtyard. In memory of the transfer of St. Norbert's relics to Strahov in 1627, two rows of walnut trees were planted on the slope below Hell (behind the current garden house). They were called Questenberg's walnuts, and the alley was preserved by planting new trees until recently. Edible chestnuts were also planted, whose history is today recalled by a sturdy aged specimen near the pulpit at the Hunger Wall. At the same time, the cultivation of saffron in the abbot’s garden was introduced. In 1640, Kryšpín Fuk of Hradiště became abbot, who completed the monastery's aqueduct and planned to further enhance the vineyards and gardens. However, his efforts were thwarted by the devastating war in 1648 during the Swedish invasion. The monastery building, vineyards, and gardens were ravaged and nearly destroyed. Vincenc Makarius Frank, elected abbot in 1658, became the restorer of the vineyards and gardens. He planted shrubs, trees, and rare flowers, established two greenhouses along the southern wall of the convent garden, and built a fountain and a nearby garden tool shed, over which a gardener's house was later built. In both the abbot's and convent gardens, he established rose gardens, and tulips, carnations, and rosemary were grown. He planted apple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, apricot, quince, and medlar trees. Medicinal herbs were also cultivated, in the vegetable garden (on today’s Beer Court). Along the path to St. Lawrence Church on Petřín, Frank had a garden pavilion built and a grotto carved into a sandstone rock nearby. His successor, Jerome Hirnhaim, planted olives in both the abbot's and convent gardens and brought vine cuttings from the South Moravian and Mělník vineyards. An orchard dryer, today's gardener's house, was also built. In today’s Great Strahov Garden, a pulpit and two hermitages were constructed, of which the larger still survives today. During the tenure of Hirnhaim’s successors in 1682, a major renovation of Strahov Monastery into the Baroque style began, which also involved transformations of the gardens. The Italian terraced style (on sloping terrain) met with the French style of geometrically segmented garden. The gardens were in bloom, meticulously cared for. However, during the battles for Prague in 1742, almost everything was again devastated and destroyed. The restoration took 40 years.

In the first half of the 19th century, great care was devoted to fruit growing in the Strahov gardens. The upper part of the garden was decorative, while the lower part, covered with trees and vineyards, was utilitarian. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a revived effort to restore the garden architecture and take advantage of its beautiful location to create viewpoints overlooking the city. However, a detailed project by the landscape architect Jaromil Slaměník was not realized due to financial constraints. In the 1950s, two groups of columnar oak trees (Quercus robur “fastigiata”) were planted in the convent garden, which became dominant features of the garden over the following decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, sanitation, regeneration, and cultivation measures were carried out in the Great Strahov Garden. From 1991 to 1995, a platform with a beautiful city view was built just below the Abbot's Garden, according to a design by architect Otakar Kuča, along with four small terraces planted with fruit-bearing grapevines. The lookout near the convent garden was renovated and a statue of Our Lady of Exile was installed there. Using the spring water from Strahov tunnels, an irrigation system was built for the green areas of a large part of the complex. In later years, partial reconstructions of the garden areas took place, old greenhouses were demolished and new ones built, and a small vineyard was established next to the convent garden. Beekeeping was enhanced, wine production from harvested grapes began, reconnecting the original integration of the garden and kitchen, which symbolically uses garden produce - vegetables, apples, apple juice, nuts, and herbs.

Sources: History of Strahov Gardens, Envis, Prague

History of Strahov Vineyards

Vincenc Makarius Frank, elected abbot in 1658, became the restorer of the vineyards and gardens. He planted bushes, trees, and rare flowers, established two greenhouses along the southern wall of the convent garden, and built a fountain and nearby toolshed, above which a gardener's house was later constructed. In both the abbot's and convent gardens, he established rose gardens; tulips, carnations, and rosemary were already being cultivated. He planted fruit trees including apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, quinces, and medlars. The gardens also served for growing medicinal herbs in the vegetable garden, located where today's Beer Court is found. Along the path to St. Lawrence Church on Petřín, Frank had a garden pavilion built and a grotto carved into a nearby sandstone rock.

Jerome Hirnhaim, who succeeded as abbot, planted olives in both the abbot's and convent gardens and brought vine cuttings from South Moravian and Mělník vineyards. An orchard dryer, which still exists today and serves as the gardener's house, was also built. In what is now the Great Strahov Garden, a pulpit and two hermitages were constructed at that time, of which the larger still survives near the Petřín Lookout.

During the tenure of Hirnhaim's successors in 1682, a major renovation of Strahov Monastery into the Baroque style began, which also involved transformations of the gardens. The Italian terraced style (on sloping terrain) met with the French style of geometrically segmented garden. The gardens were in bloom and meticulously cared for.

However, during the battles for Prague in 1742, almost everything was again devastated and destroyed. The restoration took 40 years. In the first half of the 19th century, great care was devoted to fruit growing in the Strahov gardens. The upper part of the garden was decorative, while the lower part, covered with trees and vineyards, was utilitarian.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a revived effort to restore the garden architecture and take advantage of its beautiful location to create viewpoints overlooking the city. However, a detailed project by the landscape architect Jaromil Slaměník was not realized due to financial constraints.

In the 1950s, two groups of columnar oak trees (Quercus robur “fastigiata”) were planted in the convent garden, which became dominant features of the garden over the following decades. Using the spring water from Strahov tunnels, an irrigation system was built for the green areas of a large part of the complex.

In later years, partial reconstructions of the garden areas took place, old greenhouses were demolished and new ones built, and a small vineyard was established next to the convent garden. Beekeeping was enhanced, wine production from harvested grapes began, reconnecting the original integration of the garden and kitchen, which symbolically uses garden produce - vegetables, apples, apple juice, nuts, and herbs.