Minorite Monastery The building of the originally Minorite and later Franciscan Monastery was part of “Znojmo’s Assisi”, built in the 13th century. Soon after Znojmo was established as a royal chartered city in 1226, the mendicant order of Minorites (Greyfriars) settled in the bailey in front of the gate to Znojmo Castle. In the second half of the 13th century, the female branch of the order – the Poor Clares - settled nearby. Between 1279 and 1297 the monastery was the place where the remains of the king Ottokar II of Bohemia, who had fallen in the Battle on the Marchfeld (1278), were kept. From the oldest times, a cloister was preserved in the north-west part of the Minorite Monastery, including the window tracery. The north-eastern part of the cloister is from the end of the 15th century. In 1534 the monastery was taken over by the Franciscans (Observants) who rebuilt it in the second third of the 16th century, mainly its 1st floor when the building was extended also above the cloisters. The Baroque addition is a two-storey (originally one-storey) tract adjacent to the north-western corner of the convent building. It was built as a library before 1695. From the Baroque era, there is also the courtyard tract which covered the window wall of the south-western wing of the ambit. Another Baroque feature is the vault at the north-western end of the north-eastern wing of the convent on the ground floor where the newly built rectangular turning staircase cancelled during the Classicist reconstruction protruded upstairs. It was probably the time when the whole part of the north-eastern wing of the convent was rebuilt. Between 1728 and 1729 the insufficient refectory was extended and between 1754 and 1758 a new building of the monastery hospital was built. After the monastery was closed in 1784, part of the building was turned into a military school of Prince Coburg’s regiment. In 1825 the closed monastery was radically rebuilt into a prison house. At that time the building of the monastery and church were badly damaged and together with the church the adjacent south-eastern wing of the ambit was also demolished. The area between the male and female monastery was filled with a single-nave Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary. At the turn of the 13th and 14th century, the original early Gothic church was rebuilt and complemented with an oratory of Poor Clares. The nave was slightly wider than the presbytery and quite long as it protruded to the area of what is Přemyslovců street today, like the oratory of the nuns did, too. There were seven vault bays of the main nave and three bays of the presbytery. On the south-eastern side of the church, there was the oratory of Poor Clares which was built together with the main nave. This side nave, reserved solely for the female order, was of a rectangular ground plan and lower than the main nave. In the north-east it was vaulted with two cross rib bays, the vault of the other four rectangular bays were narrowed and their ribs were coming out of slim bundle wall shafts. Two thirds of the nave was taken with a deep platform for nuns and it was vaulted perhaps in two naves with the total of ten cross bays. The area under the platform was interconnected through the low refracted arcades with the main nave of the Minorites. The oratory completion can be dated to the middle of the 14th century when the nave of the Minorites was raised. Another structural adjustment was made after the fire in 1494. At that time two refracted arcades were broken through in the central wall between the main nave of the Minorites and Poor Clares. This was also the time when the organ loft was built from which the footings of the semi-pillars are preserved. Between 1653 and 1654, two new spires were built in the western façade: one belonging to the Minorites with a bell consecrated to Virgin Mary and St Anthony of Padua, the other belonging to the Poor Clares with the bells of St Francis and St Clare. Only a smaller part of the church has been preserved until nowadays, mainly the south-eastern wall of the main nave. Since 1945 the building of the Minorite monastery has been used for museum purposes. Currently there are natural scientific, archaeological and historical collections of the museum placed in the monastery. The pride of the botanic collection is Oborny’s herbarium from 1862 to 1915. The collection of Moravian tektites, Cainosoic fossils and fossils of Mesozoic fish are an important part of the geological collections. In the zoological division there are precious evidence of the occurrence of various fauna species in the region. The archaeological division has abundant materials from all the prehistoric and historical periods. An outstanding collection is a set of late Neolithic culture with Moravian painted pottery.Unique collection of Oriental weapons or exposure of Quiet speech of rocks. PREHISTORIC FARMERS The former archaeological exhibition was full of prehistoric and medieval vessels or various metal jewels but their character rather resembled a classroom for archaeology students or provided comprehensive information for experts. Due to this reason we started to consider building a new exhibition. The aim of this renovation was to bring something new and original to the exhibition area - something that would bring archaeology and archaeological findings closer to the general public and mainly children. As the Znojmo region is an agricultural region, we chose farming as the main topic. The actual preparation of the new exhibition started in autumn 2011 with clearing out the area and careful wrapping of the exhibits some of which had been treated in the conservation laboratory. At the same time one of the depositories was moved which was originally situated behind the jet display case which was the dominant feature of the unsatisfactory exhibition. After the old display cases had been dismantled, the area of the future exhibition was extended by structural modification by new areas of the above mentioned depository but also by the former director’s office. Not only did the extension allow the possibility of showing more but it also offered interconnection with the other parts of the exhibition area, whether it was the hall with short-term exhibitions or the Animate Nature exhibition. The creation of this tour will definitely increase the overall comfort of the visitors who will appreciate smooth and uninterrupted tours. As soon as the construction work and the connected architectural project had been completed, the archaeologist A. Nejedlá could start to prepare the scenario of the new exhibition. These documents were created between 2011 and 2014 and they were used as the basis for filling of the new exhibition areas. When you enter the new exhibition, a dark space of a narrow room will open in front of you at the end of which there is a mysteriously lit replica of a rich grave from the Late Iron Age. When walking towards this interesting element, you will pass alongside a low, 20 m long display case where you can find, with the exception of the Palaeolithic, La Tène and Roman eras, the whole outline of the Prehistoric era and early historical era in the Znojmo region. Above this display case there is wallpaper by the academic artist L. Anlauf where you can see a reconstructed landscape copying the particular era represented in the display case, i.e. again without the La Tène and Roman eras. For better orientation in time, the wallpaper is complemented with a clear time line. From this room you will enter the largest area in the front of which there are two closed display cases with treasures from Znojmo’s prehistory. The dominant feature is a 22 m long open display case presenting the findings from the first farmers, culture with linear pottery, dating up until Roman times. The display case shows numerous originals complemented with successful copies, reconstructions of a furnace, urn graves or mass finds of bronze objects. Everybody will be interested in the figure of an archer from the bell-beaker culture from Late Stone Age. When you walk through the ideal reconstruction of a sunken residential building, you will get to the final part of the exhibition – to the cruel migration period and after colonisation by the ethnic Slavic you will get to the Great Moravia period. This part also comprises of a long open display case which will present, apart from originals, various branches of human activities, such as fishing, iron melting or the making of a Great Moravian jewel. Moreover, this area is complemented with a figure of a warrior from the 7th century which was made, like the others, in the studio of the sculptor J. Lipavský. Živá příroda Znojemska The exhibition of the animate nature has been part of the exhibition areas of the Minorite Monastery since the late 1960s but Animate Nature of the Znojmo Region in its current form was reopened in spring 2006 with the aim to present the nature of the region to visitors showcasing the largest possible variety of organisms and types of the natural environment. The basic environment types (biotopes) are presented in 16 large display cases. When viewing the exhibition, you will gradually see several types of forests, from the wettest bottomland forests to very dry oak woods. The “Walk in the countryside” will bring you to the rock and then to the river which is an imaginary connecting line between the natural and manmade or man influenced parts of the countryside. After the river there are ponds, meadows, moors and steppes, i.e. such biotopes which look natural at first sight but their occurrence is caused by human activities and people have to look after them, otherwise they would soon cease to exist. The last part is devoted to human settlements and agricultural countryside. We will thus show you the whole spectrum of landscape types, from the least influenced ones to the ones which were completely transformed by people. The individual display cases are conceived as a collage of pictures and exhibits characterizing the particular biotope. There you can find photographs depicting both the overall appearance of the biotope and its various details and individual typical plant, animal and fungus species. Mainly animals are also presented in the form of taxidermy preparations (stuffed animals) and models and some plants are represented with dried tree trunks, branches or clusters. Fungi are preserved using a special technique – lyophilisation. This method is based on vacuum drying at very low temperatures when none of the usual withering occurs and the preparations keep their original shape. They were made by the workers of the mycological department of the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava. For some biotopes, there is also information about their immediate connection with certain bedrock types, i.e. with inanimate nature. Large display cases are complemented with smaller wall-mounted display cases which present processes in nature or systematic groups of plants in bigger detail. Typical plant species are also presented on the revolving display panels in the form of herbarium items and insects are shown in special counter display cases. In this 3D part of the exhibition, there are a total of 250 photographs and 350 3D objects (stuffed animals, models, and dried plants etc.) and almost 1,000 preserved insect species. From the systematic point of view, there are about 230 plant species, 30 fungus species, 230 insect species and 200 species of other animals. Neživá příroda Znojemska This exhibition has been situated in the premises of Minorite Monastery since 2002. It tries to explain to the visitors the processes forming the “stone face” of the nature for hundred millions of years and the relationship between the organic and inorganic elements of the environment. The unique appearance of the landscape in the South Moravia was formed mainly by the geological boundary between the Palaeozoic crystalline complex of the Bohemian massif and sediments filling the Tertiary Carpathian fore-deep and the network of meandering water courses on the top of it all with deep valleys or flat terraces with alluviums. One of the most important dominant features of South Moravia is the Dyje river canyon which uncovers unique profiles through the south-eastern edge of the Moldanubicum, Dyje vault of the Moravicum and rocks of the Dyje massif and Krhovice crystalline complex. Vápnitý pískovec se schránkami třetihorních měkkýšů Limonitová kůra – ukázka sedimentární železné rudy z Božic Jemně skulptované sklo moravského vltavínu ze Suchohrdel Chalcedon z hadců u Černína Dvougenerační srostlice kalcitu z Jeseníků Zbraně Orientu Expozice byla v někdejší kapitulní síni kláštera poprvé otevřena v r. 1986 a v roce 2010 nově instalována. Vystavené orientální zbraně pocházejí ze zemí bývalé Osmanské říše (kavkazské kinžály, balkánské jatagany, turecká šavle kilidž, nůž bičák, albánské pušky aj.), Persie (šavle šamšíry, dýky džambie, sekery, meče, palcáty, pušky, přilby a štíty), Indie (meče talvar, dýky khutar a saintie, celokovové sekery, zaghnal, nůž kukri, bodec ankus, palcáty a štít madu), Číny (meč), Japonska (pušky, meče katany a vakizaši, kopí, přilby, klobouk džingasa), Indonésie (dýky keris, meč klewang). Jde o zbraně historické, kterých se v zemích jejich původu přestalo užívat v průběhu 19. stol., kdy zde byly postupně nahrazovány moderními zbraněmi evropského typu. Jsou cenné především vysokou úrovní svého uměleckořemeslného zpracování. Sbírku zakoupilo znojemské muzeum v roce 1921 z prostředků úvěru, který mu poskytla znojemská spořitelna. Prodával ji příznivec muzea, probošt olomoucké kapituly, baron Max Mayer z Ahrdorffu. V expozici je vystaveno přes 160 kusů chladných i palných zbraní. Sekera tabar zin a palcát gurj (Persie) Štít dhal (Indie) Dýka kukri a jízdní bodec ankus (Indie) Perská dýka a indonéský keris Bohatě vykládaná křesadlové puška (Osmanská říše) Černé řemeslo Expozice instalovaná v gotickém ambitu prezentuje výrobky kovářů a zámečníků od konce 16. do druhé pol. 19. stol. Jsou zde vystaveny vývěsní štíty, tepané mříže, náhrobní kříže, podkovy, zvony a další předměty. Všechny exponáty pocházejí ze znojemského regionu. Například náhrobní kříže z Jaroslavic a ze Želetic, vývěsní štíty ze Znojma a Vranova nad Dyjí. Pozornost si pro své umělecké ztvárnění lidských postav a vegetabilních motivů zaslouží renesanční mříž od Donnerta Schönherra ze Znojma (kolem r. 1570). Posláním expozice není ukázat chronologický vývoj kovodělného řemesla na Znojemsku, ale seznámit návštěvníka s krásou a řemeslnou dovedností tohoto druhu umělecké výroby našich předků. Patří mezi cenné součásti stavebního a uměleckohistorického bohatství regionu. Tichá řeč kamení Venkovní stálá expozice v dříve nepřístupném zadním traktu bývalého minoritského kláštera ukazuje činnost člověka v průběhu staletí vepsanou do kamene. Své příběhy zde vypráví exponáty z bohaté podsbírky lapidária muzea. Pět tematických panelů pojednává o smrtelnosti kamene, o estetice v kameni, o kameni jako užitném předmětu, architektonickém prvku i vzpomínce na zemřelé. Mezi nejstarší exponáty se řadí tzv. žernov, nenápadný kruhový kámen sloužící k mletí obilí v raném středověku (asi 9. – 11. století). Návštěvníkově pozornosti jistě neunikne ani barokní umyvadlo z louckého kláštera nebo největší exponát tzv. krakorec (tj. nosný architektonický prvek), který v renesanci zdobil jeden ze znojemských domů. Na pomíjivost lidské činnosti i života pak přímo odkazuje panel s funerální kamenosochařskou prací a vedlejší nově odkryté „pohřebiště“ kamenných pozůstatků zdemolovaných částí sdruženého kláštera minoritů a klarisek i jejich zcela zaniklého kostela Nanebevzetí Panny Marie. Pojetí celé expozice proto vybízí nejen k naslouchání svědectví jednotlivých kamenných fragmentů, ale také k rozjímání nad pomíjivostí a obdivu k práci našich předků. Celý prostor obklopený vysokými klášterními zdmi, s travnatými plochami, jezírkem a rostlinami znojemského regionu se tak stává až meditativní oázou, v níž může návštěvník dát prostor novému poznání, prožitku i vlastním myšlenkám. minoritE monastery minoritský klášter minoritský klášter minoritský klášter minoritský klášter minoritský klášter The history of this important monastery dates back to the first half of the 13th century, when the ribbed Minorite order settled on the fortified outpost of Znojmo Castle with the permission of King Wenceslas I. Minorite Monastery, Přemyslovců 6, Znojmo Tel: +420 515 282 211 year-round | Mo-Fri | 9.00–17.00 | Sat-Sun | 10.00–17.00. Lunch break always from 11.30 to 12.00.