Pleterje – Church of the Holy Trinity

VIRTUAL VISIT

The Carthusian monastery Pleterje lies sheltered under the Gorjanci hills, only 2 km from Šentjernej. The vineyard-covered slopes of the Pleterski Hrib (282 m a.s.l.) rise above it to the north. The monastery is isolated from the outside world by a high wall and reached via the road from Šentjernej through the village of Šmarje. At the entrance to the monastery church, the four-kilometres circular Pleterska Pot (Pleterje Pathway) begins and ends, offering a visitor a tour around the monastery and through the monastery vineyard to the top of Pleterski Hrib.

The building of the monastery began in 1407, when Herman II, the Count of Celje, issued a document announcing that he had begun to build a monastery of the Holy Trinity for the Carthusian order. Thus the monastery, after those in Žiče, Jurklošter and Bistra the youngest Carthusian monastery in Slovenia, was an institution of the Counts of Celje, supporters of the order even prior to that time. In the beginning of the 15th century, the regulations of the Carthusian order that  originated in France were already loose to that extent that only one monastery was built in Pleterje and not two, one for the monastic brothers and a completely separate one for the lay brothers. The layout is therefore unified, a church, a great and a lesser cloister and auxiliary building behind a unified wall. The building was supervised by the monk Hartman from the Carthusian monastery of Gaming in the Lower Austria, who also became the first prior of the new monastery. It was formally finished in 1420 when the monastery church was consecrated by Herman, the Bishop of Freising, an illegitimate son of the Count Herman II. The count died in 1435 and is buried in the monastery. In the period of the Turkish raids, the monastery wall was strengthened. In the 16th century, the monastery also felt the wave of Lutheran faith (Primož Trubar, an important Protestant author, was the minister in the nearby Šentjernej). In 1595, it was taken over by the Jesuits. They remained until 1773 when the Jesuit order was disbanded and the estate of Pleterje came under the state. The Carthusians regained in through repurchase in 1889 and started building a new monastery (finished 1904).

The monastery church of the Holy Trinity and the location of the former lesser cloister (where only traces of Gothic architecture are visible) are all that remains of the medieval monastery. The church is a single-nave longitudinal hall with an east terminal in the form of five sides of an octagon. The south wall, with the source of light from its large windows, is surrounded with tiered buttresses.  The church used to be connected to the cloister on the northern side. There is no interior caesura between the nave and the presbytery, the two sections are separated only with a somewhat stronger shaft. The church has a cross-ribbed vault with ribs resting on consoles, which reach the ground in the presbytery and are window-high in the nave. Vault fields, sequenced for a rhythmic effect, have the depth-width-height ratio of 1:2:3. Keystones and springs of consoles with their decorations indicate that the work here was undertaken by stonecutters of the so-called Celje workshop, where the influences of the workshops of the cathedrals of Prague and Vienna were at work. The church walls incorporated ceramic resonance vessels aimed at improving the interior acoustics. The Carthusian ritual namely gave an important role to singing without musical accompaniment. There is also a preserved Gothic lectern dividing the church into the section for the clerics and the section for laymen. The Jesuits moved it to the west wall and used it as a choristers’ emporia, now it has been restored to its original place.

The monastery of Pleterje is a monument to the building activities of the Counts of Celje, especially those of Herman II.  It stands out from the other Carthusian churches in Europe due to its harmony and well-considered layout.  It is deemed to be one of the best-preserved medieval churches of this order.  This monastery church is one of the most important architectural monuments of the High Gothic period in the Slovenian artistic patrimony.

ACCOMMODATION: Otočec: Hotel Grad Otočec*****, Hotel Šport****.

WINE & DINE: Novo mesto: Inn Kos,  Inn Na hribu. Krško: Inn Tri lučke. Kostanjevica na Krki: wine cellar Žolnir.

ACTIVITIES: Casino Kastel. Terme Dolenjske toplice. Terme Šmarješke toplice. Festival Rock Otočec. Traditional event Noč na Krki.

MORE INFORMATION
TIC Šentjernej
Drča 1
SI-8310 Šentjernej
Tel: +386 7 337 76 80
Fax: +386 7 308 12 19
E-mail: sentjernej@siol.net

Back to GOTHICmed sights.