The Pleterje Monastery

So, we’re back here for a sixth time.  Hard to believe.  And now that we’ve been here for two weeks already, it’s time to start getting caught up on our blog posts.

First up is the day trip we took last Sunday to the open-air museum at the Pleterje Monastery in southeastern Slovenia.  The monastery’s gatekeeper, Simon, doubles as the museum caretaker and tour guide, and seems he couldn’t be happier in his role.  He has given names to all of the animals at the museum, including goats named Helda and Zoki (after Ljubljana’s mayor) and a pig named Rudi (who happens to be from Minnesota), along with geese, chickens, an Alaskan husky, and a few others.   He also collects antique farm tools from the area.

The buildings in the museum, which are hundreds of years old, were all deconstructed piece by piece, brought to the museum, and then rebuilt.  The family who lived in one of the houses in the mid-1800’s raised five girls and four boys; in summer the boys slept in the barn while the girls slept in a single bedroom, and in winter all nine of them slept in the dining room to keep warm.  The house didn’t have a chimney, so the entire area in the center of the house was black, and they used the attic above the stove to smoke meats. 

The Monastery itself was originally built in the early 1400’s and is one of the few remaining monasteries in Europe fully committed to solitude and contemplation.  The monks spend eight hours a day in prayer, eight hours working, and eight hours resting, and only speak to each other for a few hours on Sundays and holidays.  There are nine monks and nine employees to operate the premises, which sits on an area of land three times the size of Ljubljana.  We did get to go inside the chapel of the monastery, where we could hear the monks chanting in prayer.

On the way back to Ljubljana, we drove to the nearby town of Šenternej and made the mistake of ordering burgers for lunch.  We’re pretty sure they weren't beef burgers…  :)