Brevnov Monastery

Břevnov Monastery is the oldest male monastery in Bohemia, founded in 993 AD by Bishop Adalbert (Vojtěch) and Duke Boleslav II on the site of a spring in what is now Prague's Břevnov district. The current Baroque complex was built 1708–45 by the father-and-son architects Kryštof and Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, and includes the Basilica of St. Margaret — the first church in Prague to receive the title of Basilica Minor (1948) — a Romanesque crypt from around 1040 surviving beneath the current church, and the magnificent Theresian Hall in the prelature, named after Empress Maria Theresa's visit in 1753. The monastery was seized by the Communist government in 1950 and its abbot, Anastáz Opasek, imprisoned; returned to the Benedictines after 1989 and elevated to an Archabbey by Pope John Paul II during his 1997 visit. The monastery brews its own Klášter beer, a tradition documented since the 13th century, which can be tasted at the on-site taproom in the historic Baroque granary. One of Prague's finest hidden gems — almost entirely free of tourist crowds.