The construction of the monastery dates to the 14th century. It was completed in 1543. (source: TASR)
The rare Kláštorisko (Monastery) locality in Slovak Paradise National Park in eastern Slovakia has been restored for more than a year thanks to the national project People and Castles.
The coordinator of the restoration of the Carthusian monastery and architect Juraj Slivka, said that ten people are currently working on a permanent basis. Slavomír Zahornadský, mayor of the village of Letanovce, to which the area belongs, added that they received €169,000 from the Culture Ministry as part of the project.
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From September last year to April, seven, then later ten people, worked there.
"It's the first time in the history of the reconstruction that it was possible to employ such a number of workers," pointed out the architect.
In addition to him and another archaeologist, Peter Ďurica, the guarantor of the project, Roma from the villages of Svinia and nearby Hrabušice and Letanovce were also employed. He added that most of the aforementioned subsidy went to wages.
"This leaves us with less money for materials. In the future, we would perhaps accept if this had also been thought of when distributing resources. Quite a lot of work was done that year, especially in the cleaning of historic ponds. We are interested in continuing the project, but everything depends on how the new government will approach it. However, in order to move further with the restoration, it will be necessary to finance other items in addition to wages and employ more qualified people," stated Zahornadský, as quoted by TASR.
According to Juraj Slivka, from the beginning of the project, they mainly conserved sections of the middle part of the monastery. They also focused on the north, where the monastic houses are characteristic of the Carthusian order.
"However, it was not only work on the monastery itself, but mainly on making roads to the Monastery itself accessible. This is for the benefit of supplying the construction site, logistics, cyclists and tourists," he explained.
In October and November, they plan to roof the oldest part of the monastery, the Chapel of St Margaret of Antioch from the second half of the 13th century.
"We are satisfied with their work, some have already worked on castles in the past, so they also have experience with masonry," added the coordinator. None have completed high school education, but thanks to the project, according to him, they will be better able to apply themselves to the labour market in the future.
Archaeologist Michal Slivka has been uncovering the ruins of the Carthusian monastery for almost 40 years. He pointed out that the history of this territory's settlement goes back even further. The oldest fortress fortified with a rampart is from the Late Bronze Age - 11th century BC. The second chronologically oldest is a rampart from the Hallstatt period 600 years before Christ, and in the centre of the site is a fortification against the Tatars from the 13th century. They started building the monastery at the beginning of the 14th century and completed it in 1543.
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