Filiation: Morimond-Ebrach Foundation: 1259
Resolution: 1941, revival 1991
Vyšší Brod Monastery (Vyšší Brod) was founded by the Bohemian Colonel Marshal Vok I ofRozmberg. The abbey is located in the Vltava valley, west of the confluence of the Menší Vltavice. Since its foundation it has been a spiritual and cultural center of South Bohemia and has shaped the region through silviculture, fish farming and mining. A special feature is the continuation of the landscape in the 20th century through the construction of the railway.
The monastic landscape of Vyšší Brod is part of a community of 17 important and representative Cistercian monastic landscapes in Central Europe “Cisterscapes”, is historically part of the Morimond filiation line.
In the monastic landscape of Vyšší Brod still can be seen the typical features of the Cistercian landscape – actively working with water resources and self-sufficiency management, signs of the influence of its initial foundation and the history that passed through it (principle of diversity in unity).
The founding deed of the most important Czech aristocratic family Rožmberk was important not only for colonizing but also state-building; the monastery landscape of Vyšší Brod, located in the southernmost chip of Bohemia, nowadays still forms the border between the Czech Republic and Austria.
The abbey of Vyšebrod and subsequently other land ownership and estates consisted of a number of widely dispersed villages in the South Bohemia. The only major settlements here are the towns of Vyšší Brod and Hořice na Šumavě. At the same time, the dispersal of the farms means the multiplicity of this landscape – we find both the location of the original Monastery Forest, whose mainly mountainous terrain prevents its greater economic use, and the flat pond area near České Budějovice, as well as farm goods in the rolling foothills, suitable for farming and fruit-growing.
Despite the prepeated political abolition of the monastery (1941-1945 and 1950-1990) and displacement of the population in the period after World War II, the Vyšší Brod monastery is still the only functional male Cistercian monastery in the Czech Republic and manages part of the historic monastic landscape, forests, ponds and estates.
https://www.klastervyssibrod.cz
Photo: MAS Rozkvět, z.s.