Heavenly style
At Novy Dvur, stylishness is next to godliness
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Novy Dvur's west wing houses the reconstructed monastery's offices, scriptorium and chapel.
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By
Dana Wilson
For The Prague Post
(March 19, 2003)
Tractors, cranes and construction debris sit shrouded in snow, crowding the landscape surrounding the 18th-century Baroque farmhouse that has become the first monastery in the Czech Republic since the fall of communism.
It is Sunday, and at Novy Dvur the monks who have been living in the monastery for nearly six months are at Mass. Nine white-robed figures chant in unison, blending Czech with Latin throughout the liturgy. One of the monks looks up at a guest with a shy smile.
Apart from construction workers, the Cistercian monks don't have many visitors. Cistercian monks at Novy Dvur are part of Catholic-ism's strictest order, also referred to as Trappists. Their lives are filled with study and prayer.
The western Bohemia farmhouse where they live was discovered in a decrepit state in 1999 by two monks who had traveled throughout the Czech Republic searching for the right setting for a monastery.
Its rebirth is being guided by an architect famed for his work on a decidedly less-spiritual project, the flagship Calvin Klein store in New York City.
Rising up
The monks bought the land in 1999, and reconstruction began in June 2000 on the farmhouse, which has four wings surrounding a courtyard, and a nearby guesthouse.
Work is being done wing by wing, with the idea of preserving as much of the original structure as possible.
The west wing and south wing, which include the monks' dormitory, are complete, and work has started on a church in the north wing. It should be done by the end of the year. The east wing and guesthouse should be finished in 2004.
The 60,000-square-foot (5,400-square-meter) project has generated interest in Europe, North America and England.
The project's English architect is John Pawson. His work on a high-profile retail store in Manhattan and a Cistercian monastery in Central Europe may seem poles apart, but Pawson's minimalist style typified by the store is close to the Trappists' view of purification of the environment.
Images of the Calvin Klein store epitomized what they wanted in their new home.
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The monks want the monastery's design to stress simplicity, in keeping with their focus on God.
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"Its tables are like altars, the jacket-lined recesses like chapels, and the architecture of the space could be mistaken for the nave of a well-lit modern church," one of the monks told the Guardian newspaper in July.
Respect for everything and attention to detail is an idea shared by Pawson and St. Augustine, says the Rev. Martin Satoria, one of the paternal figures among the monks.
"Everything shouts 'creator,' and that's what the monk is looking for. Everything created has this print of the creator and through this we can contemplate," he explains.
Contrasts and connections
Pawson tried to incorporate elements of the existing architecture into the new scheme. He is building on the foundation of the original farmhouse, which was designed by Kilian Dientzenhofer, architect of Prague's St. Nicholas Church in Mala Strana.
"The combination of new and old elements has made the project more complicated, breaking the architectural unity which is normal in a monastery," he said in a speech at Novy Dvur a year ago. "But there is a nice symbolism here -- in the link between past and future, in the integration of religious life within a secular context."
Pawson studied the 12th-century architectural model for the monastic order, emphasizing quality of light and proportion, simplicity and detail.
For example, the chapel's windows face north and west, allowing natural light to stream in throughout the day. The entire room is white, floor to ceiling, with solid oak pews on either side of the room embracing an open area between. A rope hangs in the center, disappearing through a small hole in the ceiling into the bell tower.
In the scriptorium, Pawson has allowed an original fresco to remain on the ceiling, the only area of color in the otherwise pristine room.
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The original 1760 farmhouse was designed by Kilian Dientzenhofer.
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He aims to create a seamlessness in the architecture, void of distraction and supportive of the goal of monastic life, with its focus on God.
Martin explains that the silence and simplicity of their lifestyle is necessary in order to feel God's presence.
"Everything -- work, simplicity, poverty -- are only instruments to reach that aim," he says, adding with a laugh, "We will not have any reason to not become saints."
Material concerns
Despite its simplicity, a monastery for 30 to 50 monks is expensive, says the Rev. Samuel Lauras, Novy Dvur's prior.
REBORN HOUSE
• Built: 1760
• Reconstruction: 2000-2004 (projected)
• Cost of project: $5 million to $6 million (145 to 174 million Kc).
• Web site:
www.novydvur.cz
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He says Pawson is charging only unavoidable expenses, and the cost is much lower than estimates from other architects, but the budget is between $5 million and $6 million (145 to 174 million Kc).
But ultimately, he says, cost is not the issue. "The question is, 'Is it important for society to have a monastery, a spiritual dimension?' "
Bishop Frantisek Radkovsky of Pilsen (Plzen), the diocese in which the Novy Dvur abbey is located, says the monastery is crucial.
"Western Bohemia is one of the most atheist regions, let's not say in the world, but definitely in Europe."
He says a little more than 1 percent of the region's population attends church regularly. "To build a monastery in such a secularized area, you need to start with a prayer."
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