The Benedictine monastery Na Slovanech with the church of Our Lady, Sts Jerome, Cyril and Methodius, Adalbert and Prokop was founded in 1347 and consecrated in 1372. It was one of the most important monastic foundations of Charles IV. His intention was to renew the centre of Slavic ecclesiastical education, to draw on the local tradition and spread the knowledge of the faith in the Slavic language among the Czech population. The monastery ambit contains an extensive and unique cycle of mural paintings, the so-called Emmaus Cycle, probably dating from the 1360s and 1370s. During the reign of Rudolf II the monastery and the church were re-catholicized and adapted in a Baroque style. In 1880–1890 the whole area was rebuilt in the spirit of Beuron Neo-Gothic. Before the war the monastery was included into the urban plan of the embankment and the slope below Emmaus, overseen by the architect Bohumil Hypšman. In July 1941 the monastery was closed down by the Nazis and the monks were expelled; the Land Office and later the German Red Cross resided in it. The Baroque single-nave chapel of Sts Cosma and Damian from 1657–1659 is also found on the site of the monastery.
After the air raid on 14 February 1945 the Emmaus monastery became a symbol of the war-time losses that the monuments in Prague suffered. The northern tower of the church was completely destroyed, the southern one burned down, two thirds of the vault in the church fell through, and the monastery was heavily damaged by fire, including the precious murals in the ambit.
Unlike many other photographers who documented the destruction of Emmaus immediately after the raid (e.g. Sláva Štochl, Stanislav Maršál, Jelena Látalová, Eugen Wiškovský and a number of anonymous reportage and agency photographers), Josef Sudek focused on the ruined monument later (probably in May or during the second half of 1945) but more thoroughly. He captured both the entire area in a view from Palacký Bridge, and from the north from the present Na Moráni Street, as well as various exterior details (e.g. together with the Sts Cosma and Damian chapel). He focused even more attention on the interior of the buildings (the ambulatory, the paradise court, chapter hall, church interior, Emperor's chapel, etc.), where he was attracted to the chaotic ruins, the damaged furniture and early signs of the first repairs, or even just the play of light. This passion is also apparent in Sudek's other works from sacral spaces, mainly in the series of St Vitus (1928) or in the pictures from the cathedral from the 1940s or from the modern St Wenceslas Church in Vršovice in the 1930s.
The Benedictines returned to the monastery on 9 May 1945, cleaning up the debris took place the following year. However, the faithful were expelled again in 1950. The site was repaired during the 1950s and in 1964–1968 it was completed with the building of new church towers designed by the architect František Maria Černý. Černý created a new approach in the form of two triangular shells with gilded spikes which intersected, creating a religious symbolism (two crossed angel wings). It became a dominant form of the skyline when looking at the Rašín embankment from the Smíchov side of the Vltava River. Under the past regime, the Academy of Science resided in the monastery, in 1990 it was given back to the Benedictines.
Perex
Vyšehradská 320/49 - Na Slovanech, Prague 2