Velehrad

The village of Velehrad is located among the spurs of the Chřiby Mountains, 7 km from Uherské Hradiště, in one of the most picturesque corners of Moravian Slovakia. It is an important spiritual center, a destination of frequent ecclesiastic pilgrimages, gatherings and Cyrillo-Methodian celebrations. Almost 1,400 inhabitants live in the area of 2,230 hectares.

History of Velehrad

The village of Velehrad has been connected to the metropolis of Archbishop Methodius since the middle ages and with the political-administrative center of the Great Moravian Empire in the ninth century. The oldest names of the village were Welgrad (1209), Welegrad (1220), Willegrad (1232), Welehrad (1247). On the basis of archeological findings we can infer that the Great Moravian Veligrad was localized in today’s Staré Město. In the cadastre of the village there are settlements from the neolithic period, the existence of which is supported with evidence from archeological findings – people of painted ceramics, barrow cultures of the middle Bronze Age and people of urn fields from the early Bronze Age.

Founding of Velehrad

Beginnings of the present-day Velehrad go back to the beginning of the 13th century when the first Cistercian monastery in Moravia was founded there. It was founded by a Moravian margrave, Vladislav Henry, close to the village of Veligrad (today’s Staré Město). Monks settled in Velehrad in November 1205. At the beginning, St. John’s church served them as a makeshift. The beginning of the construction of the monastery dates back to the second decade of the 13th century. An extensive complex of the monastery, constructed in the late Romanesque style with an influence of early Gothic, was finished in the 40’s of the 13th century when an extensive Baroque reconstruction was begun, which was finished only in the second half of the 18th century. Several artists participated on its decoration– e.g. stonemason Ondřej Allio, sculptor Baltazar Fontana, and painters Paulo Pagani and Ignác Raab.

The premises of the former monastery, with one of the biggest churches in our country belong to important cultural monuments, supporting the development of architecture and fine arts from the late Romanesque age up to now. The Cistercian monastery was closed in 1784. In 1890 the monastery was restored by the Society of Jesus. Jesuits had worked there till 1950. They came back again at the beginning of the 90’s.

History of the village is inseparably connected with the monastery. Its closing had many economic, social and cultural consequences for the serf estate. A portion of the inhabitants worked on the estate, in the manorial mill, brewery and brickyard. The brewery had been in operation until 1910. The brick making plant was in operation during the whole period of the First Republic. It was closed in 1948; and the sawmill in 1937. Due to a lack of job opportunities, the workmen looked for work outside the village. They left to work in Uherské Hradiště.