Loreta

Right here is the oldest monastery in Bohemia. Those white towers you see belong to Strahov, founded in 1143. The name comes from the Czech word for guarding, and that's what it did. This place stood watch over the ancient merchant route leading to the castle on the hill. Problem was, standing guard made you an easy target. In 1420, Hussite mobs stormed through, burning books and religious treasures. The monks barely recovered before Swedish troops ransacked the place in 1648. Then in 1742, French artillery bombarded the complex during their siege. Each time, the monks rebuilt. By 1794, Abbot Václav Mayer faced a new threat: Emperor Joseph II was shutting down monasteries across the empire. Mayer's solution? He opened the monastery's library to the public. The emperor, impressed by this enlightened gesture, let Strahov survive. That library now holds over 200,000 volumes, including a 9th century gospel written on parchment. The 20th century brought communists who seized the monastery in 1950, expelling the monks entirely. But after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the Premonstratensians returned. They've kept an unbroken brewing tradition alive for more than 600 years.