Brno Minority Monastery and Church of St. Johns

Yesterday my friend Vašek and I went for a walk to the centre to do a bit of shopping at H&M.  When we went past the church at Minoritská he asked if I had ever been inside before.  I hadn't.  I've passed it countless times over the past 13 years but I never bothered to go inside before.  What a fool I was.  Who knew that it was actually a 17th century Minorite monastery?

The Church of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, also called the Church of St. Johns, belongs to the Minorite monastery and was founded around 1230.  The site had been used continuously for almost 800 years.  The Church of St. John was consecrated in 1257.  In the 18th century the church and the monastery were rebuilt in the Baroque style.

The complex has been on the list of cultural monuments since 1958,  I'm a bit surprised that the communists actually put a monastery and church on the cultural monuments list.  It's well worth a visit because the inside is gorgeous.  I can't believe I've walked right on past it all these years.  I need to start figuring out what else I've missed out in Brno.