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Project of a New Monastery of Dominican Nuns in Prague-Lysolaje






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About Us


Our community of the Nuns of the Dominican Order was born when communism in our country started to collapse. See our website for details regarding our spirituality and way of life. After the political change, in the spring of 1990, we moved to a family house in Prague-Lysolaje, that used to serve as a clandestine convent to a small community of our Brother Dominicans. Our community was growing so the space in the house soon became too small and inadequate for our way of life as contemplatives. So, we began to search for a place where we could build a new monastery. Our endeavours at that time were in vain since the City Government did not allow us to build on a chosen property.

For this reason we adopted a temporary solution: in 1994 we had an extension added to our house, including some cells, a small guest room and a chapel allowing public attendance at our liturgy. (Click here to see how our house looks at present.) In this house we have tried to learn to live our contemplative vocation according to our present conditions. But we never gave up on the idea of building a real monastery and have never stopped praying for this project.

Recently, the question of building a new monastery has become more urgent, also because more and more people approach us with a plea to spend a few days of spiritual renewal with us or to take part in our prayer, and the small space allows us to meet their needs only in a very limited way. Also, we would like to invite local people for talks or concerts more often. Apart from that, our working space (for sewing, writing icons etc) is very small as well (a room usually serves several purposes), and the garden is insufficient for our hidden way of life. Therefore our attempts at finding a suitable property to build a new monastery on have been intensified.

In that situation, our local Mayor took us by surprise when she sent to us an architect who works on a new plan of development for our city part (the process of approving a new city plan of Prague for the next decade is just going on). The architect came to help us find a suitable place for our future monastery in Lysolaje. The fact that it is the wish of both local people and the municipality that we stay in Lysolaje is a sign of God's will for us to remain here. Together with the architect we chose a suitable property (see it here), approached its owner and had a study made for the construction of a monastery on this property. On the basis of this study, a proposal for including our project into the city plan of Prague was submitted to the City Government both by the owner of the property, and by the municipality of Lysolaje (our project was approved unequivocally by the latter). Because our city part has no church and the parish church is hardly accessible, our project is likely to be approved. So, if the project to build a new monastery on the chosen property is approved as part of the city plan of Prague, and this will be known on the verge of 2010/2011, the owner of the property would be willing to sell it to us and we could start making steps towards the building of a monastery.

So far, however, we have very little money for the financing of the building and for the purchase of the property. A preliminary estimate of the sum needed for the property, for the construction of the monastery and for the running costs in the early years is in the region of millions of EUR. Therefore we approach you with a plea: do you know of anybody who could help us with the finances or give us some advice how to collect the funds needed for our project? Click here for the contact and the bank connection. We will be very grateful for your help of any kind and assure you of our prayers.