Vyšší Brod
Photo: MAS Rozkvět, z.s.
Founding date: 1259 (order number 658 according to Janauschek)
Date of dissolution: 1941, revived in 1991
Filiation / mother monastery: Morimond-Ebrach / Wilhering Monastery
Daughter monastery: /
Vyšší Brod Monastery was founded by the Bohemian Colonel Marshal Wok von Rosenberg. The abbey is located in the valley of the Vltava River, 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 forestry, fish farming and mining. A special feature is the continuation of the shaping of the landscape in the 19th century through the construction of the railroad.
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The cultural landscape
The monastery landscape of Vyšší Brod historically belongs to the Morimond filiation line. Today, the typical features of the Cistercian landscape can still be seen – active management of water resources and self-sufficiency, signs of the influence of the original foundation and the history it has passed through (principle of diversity in unity).
The founding charter of the most important Czech noble family Rožmberk was not only important for colonization, but also for the formation of the state; the monastery landscape of Vyšší Brod, located in the southernmost tip of Bohemia, still forms the border between the Czech Republic and Austria today.
Vyšebrod Abbey and subsequently other properties and estates consisted of a number of widely scattered villages in South Bohemia. The only larger settlements here are the towns of Vyšší Brod and Hořice na Šumavě. At the same time, the scattering of farms means the diversity of this landscape – we find here both the location of the original monastery forest, whose predominantly mountainous terrain prevents greater economic use, and the flat pond area near České Budějovice, as well as agricultural estates in the hilly foothills, which are suitable for arable farming and fruit growing.
Despite the previous political abolition of the monastery (1941-1945 and 1950-1990) and the expulsion of the population after the Second World War, the Vyšší Brod Monastery is still the only functioning Cistercian monastery in the Czech Republic and manages part of the historic monastic landscape, forests, ponds and lands.
