A reader in Slovenia very kindly sent us some pictures which he scanned out of an old book about the Carthusian Monastery of Pleterje, located in a village called Drča about 50 miles to the west-south-west of the capital, Ljubljana. Originally founded as a Charterhouse by a local count at the beginning of the 15th century, it was turned over to the Jesuits at the end of the 16th. With the suppression of the latter in the 1770s, it became first state property, then private, until the Carthusians were able to repurchase in 1899 it and reestablish it as a monastery; it is now the only functioning Charterhouse in Slovenia. These photos date to the date to the year 1938.
The chapel of the brothers
A chapel dedicated to St Joan of Arc
The chapter house
The prior’s throne in the main church.
Prayer in the cell
The lectern
The relic chapel
reading
A monk, a novice and a postulant.
Various scenes of the monks’ daily work. In addition to the common grange, vineyards, etc, each cell of a charterhouse normally has its own private garden; in this first picture, we see a monk working in his.
