A History of Central Eastern Europe

ČERVENÝ KLÁŠTOR
The Cartesian or Carthusian monks opened
their 1 st Slovakian monastery in 1305 at
SKALA ÚTOČIŠŤA. In 1320 KOKOSZ
BERZEVICZY donated around 1320 acres of
land near LECHNICA to the monks to build a
monastery. After obtaining the approval of
both the local government and receiving a
founding charter from KAROLY I, a 10-year
process (some things never change!)
building commenced under the direction of
Prior John, the first rector, in 1330. By
1350, the Cartesians were building homes
made of stone for the clergy. After this the
church, convent and the workshop
buildings were built. (How odd. I’d build the workshop first.) The extensive use of red roof tiles
and/or the red bricks (or both) used on the first priory gave the institution it’s well-known, if not
official, name - ČERVENÝ KLÁŠTOR – or RED MONASTERY.
In 1351, the monastery may have broke with the Cartesians for unspecified reasons, but they
would continue pursuing the same goals as the Cartesians and become an independent and
important religious center in the process. Through donations and purchases, they acquired large
tracts of land, including LYSÁ NAD DUNAJCOM, HUNCOVCE and SPIŠSKÁ STARÁ VES and received
important privileges, such as the right to fish on the Dunajec, to mill grains, to brew beer and to
try court cases for the locality. In the 15 th century the Cartesians became preoccupied with
discovering the “elixir of life” and tried to do so through the use of alchemy. Despite being
censured for their alchemic bent in 1470 and 1507, the monks kept at it and, in fact, one of the
best known alchemists of his time, MARTIN KASPERBOROVIT, worked here until he was forced to
flee in 1563. Entrusting the results of his research to the organist at SPIŠSKÁ NOVA VES, ANDREJ
SMOCKY, he fled OLOMOUC. SMOCKY published the alchemist’s findings in VADE MECUM ET EGO
TECUM (COME WITH ME AND I WITH YOU), a book of alchemist remedies in which he recorded
alchemist symbolism and terminology in a
chapter devoted to monastic medicine. At this
time all of “scientific” medicine involved an
intricate understanding of astrology – with
which any one claiming to be a doctor was
considered a fraud and liable to be prosecuted,
or worse. The monastery was no exception
and was censured in 1462 for their research
into astrology – for that denied the influence
of God.
Besides the censures, the monastery was also
bothered by repeated infestations of Polish
Hussites in the early 15 th c. Two devastating
attacks came in the first half of the 1430s: in
1431 DOBESLAV PUCHALA led one and 2 years
later it was JAN PARDUS and FRIEDRICH Z
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