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Work in the 2020 season
During the 2020 season, we continued working on the archeology exploration, and monastery conservation started the previous year. Despite the pandemic, work progressed at a good pace.
Archeological research was carried out in three excavation sites. We uncovered the cloister garth’s SE and SW corner and continued exposing the monastery garden’s fencing wall.
We mostly worked on the conservation of the SE corner of the monastery. We mortar pointed the masonry, reattached the original, partially detached plasters, masoned the top part of the walls, and then laid a grass layer on them. We added three window niches for the wall stability and continued with the original static system’s reconstruction. We inserted hand-hewn oak beams into the places where they originally were in the perimeter walls. We contracted the cloister wings with iron rods, which used to reduce strain on the walls under the vaults’ load.
We have made a presentation of the tomb shaft situated on the floor in the crypt. For the safety of our visitors, we’ve also added a railing around the crypt’s entrance.
The railing around the crypt's entrance
Presentation of the tomb shaft situated on the floor in the crypt
Insertion of the iron rods into their original places, subsequently masoned in
The making of the iron rods
The grass laid on top of the walls and rebuilt window niches
The process of rebuilding the window niche
East part of the monastery garden's fencing wall
The staircase between two floors of the monastery, original brick flooring
Stone parts of the window frames of the upper floors
Entrance stone staircase leading from the garth into the monastery
(Slovenčina) Na Katarínke bolo po roku prvé verejné kultúrne podujatie – úspešná Noc hradov a zrúcanín aj s predstavením Babylonská veža.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Slovenčina.
Work planned for 2020
In the working season 2020, we plan to focus mainly on the monastery.
Four archaeologic test pits will be made in the monastery. Two of them will focus on uncovering of the monastery garden enclosure wall and they follow the wall restoration works from previous years. Archaeologic research will be followed by conservation and masonry work. The other two test pits will research the corners of the big quad on the monastery side and the entrance from monastery to the quad.
We will continue with the conservation and reconstruction of the southeast part of the standing monastery wing with the aim to conserve and statically stabilize the ruin. We will restore the fallen window arch and insert the hand-carved oak beams into the walls to extend and restore the original wooden-metallic stabilizing wall system.
In the church nave, we plan to place the crypt entrance cover and add a safety railing around it. Afterwards, the “big crypt” can be made accessible to tourists.
Katarína Monastery during the coronavirus pandemic
Update at June 29, 2020:
- The Open Doors Day event on 5.7.2020 will not take place
- The tower will be open in July and August, but in connection with the coronavirus in limited mode (more information in the Tower section); land tourist escorts will also take place in a restricted mode
- Summer parties will take place, but the number of participants is already full (you can only register as a substitute)
Original text:
We fully respect all quarantine measures regarding the occurrence of a new coronavirus.
For this reason, the tower will be closed until further notice and no public events or tourist accompanying will take place in the church and monastery grounds until further notice.
As the health and safety is important for us, we strongly urge you to limit visits at this time, so that groups of tourists do not gather around and thus increase the risk of infection.
We will be happy to welcome you at Katarína after the quarantine measures are over.