Carthusian monastery. Carthusian monastery of Pleterje

In the city of Bereza In the Brest region there are the ruins of an amazing complex of buildings -Carthusian monastery (1648). From the first grade of school I was interested in the ruins of this monastery, climbed through its basements and studied all the ruins. Now many basements and underground passages are filled up, but I still remember this amazing feeling of mystery and mystery hidden within these walls. Therefore, I would like you to touch this miracle. And I will begin my story with the Catholic order of the Carthusians themselves. This is the most ancient Christian order, and in Bereza there is the only monastery in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - Berezovsky.Then I will tell you what the monastery looked like before and what its fate is today. Well, what awaits him in the future))

Coat of arms of the Carthusians

At about the age of twenty-five, Bruno received his doctorate, was ordained a priest, became a canon of the Cathedral, and a year later became rector of the university. He began a reform, the main points of which were aimed at eradicating the vices that had taken root in monasteries by that time, namely, the establishment of a strict monastic Rule, which was based on asceticism and obedience, the prohibition of simony, the introduction of compulsory celibacy for priests, and the proclamation of the independence of monasteries in particular and the entire Church as a whole from any secular rulers. The motto of the order is “The cross stands while the world turns” (Stat crux dum volvitur orbis).

The film Into Great Silence was released in 2005.

The Great Silence" is a documentary about the Carthusian monks. Monastery of Grand Chartreuse, French Alps, telling about the life of the Carthusians, which aroused widespread interest in them. A three-hour documentary about a monastic order, whose members keep a vow of silence. The film takes place in the Carthusian monastery of Grand Chartreuse, lost in the French Alps. Throughout the entire film, viewers hear almost no human speech; the silence is interrupted only by the ringing of bells. The film depicts the everyday life of monks living in twilight: the cells of the monastery are illuminated only by candles. They sleep on benches covered with straw, and Their homes are heated only with small tin stoves.The snow-capped Alpine mountains provide a majestic backdrop to their spiritual quest.At night, the monks gather in a stone chapel, where the piercing cold reigns, sit on the floor and chant Gregorian chants.

Silence. Repetition. Rhythm. The film is an ascetic, almost silent reflection on monastic life. No music except chants in the monastery, no interviews, no comments, no additional materials. The change of day and night, seasons and an ever-repeating routine, prayer.

Charter and daily routine of the order.

Historically, the Carthusians paid a lot of attention to physical and intellectual labor and maintained excellent libraries at their monasteries.

The Carthusians lead a semi-hermitic and strictly contemplative life. Their charter, written in 1127 by the House of Gyges, enshrines the rules established by St. Bruno. Inspired by the experience of the desert fathers, the Carthusians, having carried out a certain synthesis of hermit and communal life, combined the advantages of both of these paths, softening the severity of absolute solitude with a communal way of life. However, their lives remain largely solitary.

Each cell consists of an ambulatory (covered gallery), a separate garden, a workshop, a toilet and a cubicle, or living room, where the monk sleeps, eats, studies and prays. Remaining isolated from each other, all cells have access to a common gallery connected to the church. Worship takes up most of the Carthusian's day and night. The Carthusians do not eat meat even when sick, but fast once a week, eating bread and water. For most of the year, they eat only once a day, receiving food through a special dispensary window. The Carthusians strictly observe silence, but during the weekly "spatiment", a vigorous three- or four-hour walk, the brothers talk freely with each other. Monks never leave the vicinity of their monastery and do not participate in any active service. Throughout the almost nine-century history of the order, their way of life has undergone virtually no changes.

Lay brothers who devote themselves to the service of reclusive brothers share the same ideal of union with God. By taking care of the material needs of the monastery, they make possible the solitary life of the fathers, who cannot leave their cells to work. However, lay brothers usually workalone and also lead a mostly solitary life.

The Carthusian monk constantly held a real human skull in his hands, mystically communicating with the soul of the deceased teacher.

Distributing food through the window

The basis of Cartesian spirituality is complete withdrawal from the world, a contemplative life in great, almost eternal silence, solitude, severe asceticism and constant prayer.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, but somehow it didn’t work out. I want to tell you about the Carthusian monastery of Aula Dei (Monasterio De La Cartuja Aula Dei), which is located near Zaragoza.
We visited it back in early August (What? Now is the time to write about summer!). There he is in the distance...

Before going to the monastery, you need to call there, and a woman with a pleasant voice will set a date and time for your visit. As I understand it, in this way they regulate the number and strength of excursion groups so that they do not interfere with the life of the monastery.

A long alley leads from the gate to the entrance, surrounded by perennial (or maybe centuries-old, I don’t know) plane trees. Romance...

On the left under the arch is the ticket office, and on the right is the entrance.

And now we are finally on the territory of the monastery!

It got its name because many, many years ago, Carthusians (Cartuhi, in Spanish) - French hermit monks - lived here. This order was founded in France in the French Alps and, by the way, still continues to exist there. But in this particular place their trace has already disappeared.

At one time this building was privately owned and there was a textile factory here (even in the church there were machines! I thought such outrage was possible only in Soviet Russia, but it turns out not), and now another monastic order lives here, a female one, but also French.

But the cells of those monks have still been preserved, and you can see them and get acquainted with their way of life.
Cells are two-story houses with an adjacent small garden, connected by a covered gallery. There are 36 of these houses in total.

The interiors there are not complicated, on the ground floor there is a bedroom, a dining room, a place for prayer and solitude...

On the second floor, as a rule, there was a workshop with tools and necessary materials (the monks worked hard and hard).

And here is the kindergarten:) The arrangement of the kindergarten was left entirely to the will of the monk. Some people built a vegetable garden here, some a real garden with flowers and trees, while others preferred to see thickets of tall grass outside the window.

Looking at this garden, I still couldn’t understand the owner’s preferences :) What is this anyway?
But despite such a dull appearance, a pear grows here and even bears fruit quite well!

What else were cartouches famous for? They made great wine!

Perhaps the Carthusians and their way of life will not seem a very interesting topic for some, but if (what if?) they interest you, then it is for you that at the end of the post I am posting a film about modern Carthusian monks who live in exactly the same cells only in France and far in the mountains.

And the main interest, which is why tourists from all over the world come to this monastery, is the church.

Besides the fact that it's just beautiful here...

Huge frescoes painted by the famous artist Francisco Goya in 1774 are also preserved here (although not completely, although not all). This is a series of huge paintings on the walls of the church, telling about the life of the Virgin Mary. Goya’s biography mentions this work of his; he was still young and not so famous then. But, interestingly, I’m not a super connoisseur of painting, and in general I don’t really understand it, but during my stay in Spain I already managed to see a lot of works by this artist. And how surprising it was for me that I directly saw his style, his manner in these frescoes. It's me!
This is what it means: we grow, we become enlightened :)

Documentary film "The Great Silence".
Over the course of 2 and a half hours, the life of the monks is shown as it is, no interviews or stories, a minimum of sounds, only chants and the ringing of bells - a burden, of course :) But, if you get into the right mood (as, for example, it happened to me ), can make a strong impression, and at the same time please with amazing alpine landscapes...

The Carthusian Monastery in Bereza is an architectural monument of the 17th century, the only monastery of the Carthusian Order in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; it was considered the largest and richest monastery in the principality. It is the only Carthusian monastery located on the territory of the former USSR.

The construction of the monastery in Bereza is associated with one of the most famous families of Belarus - the Sapiehas. There are several legends why the monastery (monastery) was built in Bereza. According to one of them, there was once a birch grove in these places, where there were many clean springs. One day a blind old man, who came to the grove with a boy as a guide, sat down to rest and fell asleep. The boy started playing in the forest and got lost. When the old man woke up, he began to wander through the grove and heard the sounds of a spring. After drinking and washing with clean water, the old man began to see again. In honor of this miracle, the elder erected a birch cross at the spring. Sapega, who had a blind son, heard about the miraculous healing. The father brought the boy to the source and when the son washed himself, his sight returned. As a token of gratitude, Sapieha decided to build a monastery on this site. According to another legend, during the Sapieha hunt, the dogs barked after the beast, and suddenly there was silence. When the owners caught up with the dogs, they were lying peacefully in the clearing, and in the middle of the clearing there was a cross, which had never been in this place before. Sapieha took this as a sign from God and decided to found a monastery on this site.

The historical fact is that in 1617 the city of Bereza became the property of Lev Sapieha, Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After his death, according to his will, Birch passes first to his eldest son Jan Sapieha, then to his youngest son Kazimir Lev Sapieha. Casimir Lev was an educated man and, like his father, had outstanding abilities and intelligence, he held high positions in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Kazimir Lev Sapega was a deeply pious man. During his life he founded many churches and monasteries. In 1646, Carthusian monks from Kartuzy (near Gdansk) wrote him a letter, in which they told about their order and asked for permission to settle in his domain. Sapieha liked the idea of ​​founding a Carthusian monastery.

Carthusians (lat. Ordo Cartusiensis, OCart) are a monastic order of the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1084 St. Bruno of Cologne in the Chartreuse Mountains near Grenoble (France). The basis of the spirituality of the Carthusians is complete withdrawal from the world, severe asceticism, contemplative and solitary life, and constant prayer. The Carthusians paid a lot of attention to physical and intellectual labor. 7 Carthusians were canonized, 22 were beatified. From the rules of the order: “Our main goal and science is to seek God in the quiet of solitude.”

After receiving permission to build a monastery from Bishop Andrei Gemblitsky, 3 monks came to Sapieha and chose Bereza as the location for the future monastery. Birch attracted them with its secrecy and isolation, necessary for monastic life. Construction began in 1648 and lasted 40 years. The construction was led by the Italian architect Giovanni Battista Gisleni. As soon as the first stone was laid, Sapieha donated 600 peasants and a large territory to the monks, and thus the entire city began to belong to the monastery, which is why it got its name Bereza-Kartuzskaya, which was preserved before 1940.

The fortress monastery was built in the shape of a pentagon and occupied an area of ​​more than 6.5 hectares. The complex included a church (built much earlier, in 1666), residential buildings, a library, a hospital, a canteen, a pharmacy and various outbuildings. In the center of the monastery palace there was a belfry with thick walls and tiers for cannons. The entire complex was surrounded by thick walls; one could get inside through a massive gate (entrance gate) with loopholes. The report on the construction of the monastery, accidentally found in the dome of the temple, includes the amount of 300 thousand chervonets (which was equal to 1 ton of gold) spent on the construction of the monastery.

The patron of the monks, Casimir Lev Sapieha, did not live to see the completion of construction; he died in 1656 and was buried in Bereza, in the Carthusian monastery, where eight more generations of the famous family found peace.

The land ownership of the monastery was constantly increasing due to new grants, wills of feudal lords, receiving land for money given by the monastery in interest, gifts from rich people for providing burial space in the crypt of the church.

The monastery became a large feudal estate, based on the serf labor of about 2.5 thousand peasants.

The Berezovsky Monastery of the Carthusians was also a lender-usurer. Feudal lords, city magistrates, townspeople in need of cash, and impoverished residents of the city outskirts turned to the monastery for cash loans.

In the 19th century, the monastery became one of the largest property owners in Belarus. The possessions of the Berezovsky Monastery included:

— 2 brick factories with a production capacity of 12 and 10 thousand bricks;
— 2 sawmills;
— workshops for the production of tiles and lime;
— tannery;
— 5 mills;
— breweries (distilleries).

The monastery itself housed 14-16 monks. The Carthusian monks were hermits and ascetics, and therefore the layout of the monastery was unusual. The complex itself was divided into two parts: central and external. Hermit monks lived in the central part, and the outer part was intended for monks who had not severed all ties with the world. The rules of the Carthusian order provided for asceticism taken to the extreme. Each cell was isolated and had its own small yard and vegetable garden. The monks practically did not communicate with each other. Hermits walked to prayers through special underground passages that have survived to this day. Only on Sundays did they go out into the monastery garden and the common refectory, only on these days were they allowed to speak. The rest of the time they were not supposed to communicate with anyone. Food was served to them through a zigzag channel, which was made so that the hermits could not even see the hands of the person who brought the food.

The monastery was proud of its library; there were 39 handwritten and 2314 printed books.

The photographs below show a model of the monastery, made by students of Brest State Technical University.

The monastery was repeatedly attacked and destroyed during wars: Russian-Polish 1654-1667, Russian-Swedish 1656-1658, Northern 1700-1721, War of 1812. According to legend, during the Northern War in 1706, the Russian Tsar Peter I and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth King Augustus II the Strong met in the Carthusian monastery to discuss plans for jointly waging war against the Swedish king Charles XII.

However, this fact is not confirmed by any documentary evidence. What is known for certain is that in April 1706, battles took place near Bereza between the Swedes and Russian troops. Charles XII himself stayed in the monastery for two days.

After the 3rd partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Bereza became part of the Russian Empire. In 1831, the monks took an active part in the uprising against Tsarist Russia. Under the pretext of the monks' participation in the uprising, the tsarist government closed the monastery on August 28, 1831, and the buildings were handed over to the military authorities. In 1866, the 151st Pyatigorsk Infantry Regiment arrived in Bereza for permanent quarters. In order to build barracks for the soldiers, it was ordered to dismantle the church on the territory of the Carthusian monastery. At one time, the church was built of good red brick, and the barracks were called “red”. The barracks have survived to this day and are called that way: .

In 1915, the monastery buildings burned during a fire.

In the second half of the 1930s, pallotine monks came to the monastery, restored the Sapieha House, some outbuildings, and built a chapel (pictured to the right of the Sapieha House). The photo was taken from the bell tower of the destroyed church.

In the 60s, the entire territory of the monastery belonged to the military unit.

Today all that remains of the former grandeur of the monastery are ruins, which are gradually falling into disrepair. Only fragments of the complex have survived to this day: the gatehouse, the belfry tower, the hospital building and part of the wall with one of the corner towers have survived. But even those ruins that we can see today amaze with their majesty and allow us to imagine the impressive scale and power of the monastery. The complex is in desperate need of reconstruction; it could become a tourist pearl not only of Bereza, but of the whole of Belarus.

Monastery Church

In the suburbs of Moorish Granada, where there was a wealthy Muslim’s estate called “Ainadamar” or “fountain of tears,” today a temple monastery complex rises. In the 13th-15th centuries, on the hills near the city, gardens bloomed, fountains flowed, and fruit trees produced a bountiful harvest. The Castilian soldiers who entered the kingdom during the siege of Granada were pleasantly surprised by such green gardens. Here a miraculous rescue awaited them from a collision with a large detachment of Moors sent towards them.

Later, this event served as the reason for the construction of the monastery. Among the green abundance, the monks of the Carthusian order began construction at the beginning of the 16th century. According to the laws of their order, they had to live in complete silence, work in silence and build the monastery walls themselves. Construction lasted almost three centuries. The monastery church is a real pearl of baroque decorative work by the masters of the 17th century temple architecture of Andalusia.

Carthusian monastic order

The Carthusian monastic order of the Catholic Church arose in France in Grenoble in the 11th century. The first monastery in the Chartreuse mountains was founded by Bruno of Cologne, a German monk who was canonized in 1623. In the Middle Ages, Carthusian monasteries spread throughout Europe. The spirituality of the order is very ascetic: complete withdrawal from the world, solitude, silence, constant prayer, solitary work, vegetarianism. There are about 400 monks living today.

Like many churches in Spain, the construction of the Carthusian monks of Granada suffered during the Napoleonic invasion, then government reforms of 1837 broke out, and the complex was closed. The cells and outbuildings disappeared.

Refectory and chapels

Strict, even ascetic from the outside, the temple complex will make you experience sincere admiration for the interior decoration. The surviving buildings are the cloister and communal halls. A courtyard with a fountain, vegetable hedges, and arcaded galleries with columns once protected the monastic peace. IN Refectory and chapels paintings by Juan Sánchez Cotán are shown, telling about the history and characters of the order. The artist was a secular monk, spent a lot of time in creative solitude, and decorated with numerous paintings.

Cloister of the monastery
Monastery refectory

IN former church and the chapel, the visitor is introduced to the works of the Italian artist Vicente Carduccio, Velazquez's rival at the Madrid court. I note that the works of both masters are also presented in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Monastery Church

IN churches modesty and peace are transformed into fabulous decorations, giving free rein to the imagination of the master decorators of the 17th century. The Andalusian Baroque appears before the visitor in all its beauty and idle grandeur. The space of the walls and ceiling vaults of the church is decorated with plaster stucco moldings of various bizarre shapes, for which the temple received the name - Christian Alhambra.

Church
Canopy sculpture of the Holy Virgin

At the top of the room there are 7 paintings from the life of the Virgin Mary, painted by Atanasio Vocanegra. The altar part is decorated with plaster stucco covered with polychrome. The decoration of the church was a wooden canopy, covered with gilding and decorated with mirrors, by Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo. Decoration with mirrors in temples is found only in Southern Spain, in Andalusia.

Holy of Holies

Behind a partition made of Venetian glass is the Holy of Holies, the work of Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo, completed by 1720, executed in the Baroque style with Rococo elements. The central canopy is made from various types of marble quarried in the vicinity of Granada. The sculptural creation made of marble is decorated with four female images, symbolizing Christian benefactors - Justice, Prudence, Courage and Temperance. In the central part of the canopy there is a tabernacle of their valuable wood made in 1816.

Statue of John the Baptist
Statue of John the Baptist

Four wooden statues in the corners depict the images of John the Baptist, St. Bruno, St. Joseph with the baby Jesus and Mary Magdalene, made in human size. The Holy of Holies is crowned by a dome painted with frescoes. The frescoes painted on the dome are by artists Antonio Palomino and Jose Risueno, depicting the Kingdom of Heaven and its inhabitants. Among the heavenly inhabitants, the central place is given to Saint Bruno, holding the Earth.

Sacristy

The Baroque exuberance continues in the sacristy with an unprecedented composition begun in 1732, designed by Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo. Music in plaster, decorated with a plinth in marble and decorated with Moorish tarasea technique. The gypsum twisted stucco molding is of such magnificence that it “takes your breath away” from such harmony and beauty. The name of the decorative style is churrigueresque, found in Spain in temple decorations. The style was created by the architect and sculptor José de Churriguera and his brothers in the 17th century. Created a twisted beauty in stucco by artist Luis Cabello.

Marble plinths, representing a stone creation of nature, only enhance the artistic impact on the eyes of visitors. The retablo of the sacristy is carved from the same marble, quarried in Lanjaron; the sculpture of St. Bruno modestly complements the altar ensemble. The marble splendor is the creation of stonemason Luis de Arevalo and nature. Among the variety of intertwining and penetrating marble patterns, one can distinguish a nimble kitten or a young lamb.

Marble retablo in the sacristy
Moorish tarasea technique

The church furniture of the sacristy is inlaid with valuable materials, combined in a regular geometric pattern. The decoration is made of expensive species of black and mahogany wood, mother-of-pearl, shells, and silver. Moorish technique - tarasea, master Manuel Vazquez worked for 34 long years.

Be sure to take time out of your trip to visit the Carthusian Monastery of Granada to see the inexhaustible artistic imagination recreated in decorative decoration.

Note to tourists

The entrance fee is 5 euros and includes an audio guide in Spanish and English.
Schedule: Monday - Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00
Every Saturday from 13.00 to 15.00 the church is reserved for wedding ceremonies.
Taxi fare from the Cathedral 6-8 euros El Monasretio de Cartuja Monasterio de Cartuja
Shuttle bus U3.

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Location. The city of Bereza, Brest region. 245 km southwest of Minsk.

Historical and cultural significance. An architectural monument of the 17th century. The largest and richest monastery in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Story.The youngest son of the famous Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Lev Sapieha, Kazimir Lev Sapieha, who was distinguished by his particular piety and commitment to Catholicism, donated a place in his domain to the monks of the Carthusian Order for the construction of a monastery. The monks chose a site near the town of Bereza, where, according to legend, a wooden cross with the image of the crucified Christ once appeared, and in 1648 they laid the first stone here for the foundation of a new monastery. Construction under the direction of an Italian architect, presumably Giovanni Batisto Gisleni, took almost forty years and was completed in 1689. The main monastery church was consecrated in 1666, and finishing work did not stop until the middle of the 18th century. In addition to the church, there were residential buildings, a library, a hospital, a dining room, a pharmacy and various outbuildings, adjacent to which was a large garden with a lake. In the middle of the monastery courtyard there was a belfry with thick walls and tiers for cannons. The complex was surrounded by a stone wall with towers, and the entrance was a massive gate with loopholes. Not far from the gate there was a two-story Sapega palace. The monastery in Bereza was considered one of the best in the Rhine province of the Carthusian Order, which included the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

According to legend, during the Northern War (1700-1721), the Russian Tsar Peter I and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth King Augustus II the Strong met in the Carthusian monastery to discuss plans for jointly waging war against the Swedish King Charles XII . However, this fact is not confirmed by any documentary evidence. What is known for certain is that in April 1706, battles took place near Bereza between the Swedes and Russian troops. Charles XII himself stayed in the monastery for two days, and the Swedish soldiers, when leaving, collected a rich ransom from the monks, thanks to which the walls of the monastery remained intact.

Soon after the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, all Carthusian monasteries in the Polish lands were closed, and the Berezovsky monastery remained the last operating monastery of the order on the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the uprising of 1830-1831, the monastery in Bereza was nevertheless closed, and all its property was transferred to the cadet corps in Polotsk.

Monastery of the Carthusians in Bereza. Engraving of Napoleon Horde

After this, barracks were placed in the residential buildings, the church became a parish church, and the monks were sent to other monasteries. After the uprising of 1863-1864, the buildings that had previously been part of the Carthusian monastery began to be dismantled into bricks, from which new barracks were built in the vicinity of Bereza. In the 30s of the twentieth century, these barracks, called “red”, became notorious as a concentration camp created by the Polish authorities for political prisoners in Western Belarus.

In 1915, the monastery buildings burned down. The remaining ruins continued to gradually collapse throughout the 20th century.

Current state. From the monastery, the gates, the belfry tower, the hospital building and part of the wall with one of the corner towers have survived to this day.

Ruins of the Carthusian monastery in Bereza. Current state. Photo by Sergei Plytkevich

Today we are publishing the latest material about collapsing architectural and historical monuments. Our project continues: the TIO.BY portal, the Belarusian branch of the International Council on Monuments and Historic Sites (ICOMOS) and the public organization "Gistoryka" announce the start of the historical photo collage competition "The Vanishing Heritage of Belarus". Find details on the website TIO.BY.
The project will end on April 18, when the Day of Monuments and Historic Sites will be celebrated around the world. On this day in Belarus there will be a “Fest of Tourists”, the main organizer of which is the public organization “Gistoryka”. We invite everyone who cares about the fate of our heritage to join the project.