Žiče Charterhouse

Seiz Charterhouse (Slovenian: Kartuzijanski samostan Žiče ) is a small town in Slovenia near Konjice / Gonobitz and location of a former Carthusian monastery.

Alternative Spellings

Seitz ( 1185 ), seats ( 1186, 1243 ), Seiz (1202, 1234), Sishe ( 1229 ), Seitis ( 1233 ), Sits ( 1235, 1257 ), Siz ( 1237 ), Syces ( 1240), Sic ( 1243 ), Syces ( 1245 ), Sith ( 1247 ), hand ( 1257 )

History

Margrave Ottokar III. has established the monastery in 1165 and entrusted to the then unknown there Carthusians. The outlying lands were indeed fief of Ortolf of Gonobitz, but this was compensated with others. Ottokar III. , His wife and his son Ottokar IV were buried in the monastery. After a varied history, the monastery was dissolved as one of the first of Emperor Joseph II in 1782 and the extensive possessions at this time, including the rule Gonobitz incorporated into the religious fund. The Charterhouse itself was left to decay. Only in 1826 it was sold with the rule Gonobitz at Prince of Windisch- Graetz Weriand.

In Seiz wrote the early 14th century the Carthusian monk Philip of Seiz a rhymed life of Mary with more than 10,000 verses .. From 1342 to 1345 was Konrad of Hainburg Prior of Seitz.

Library

Seitz had once one of the richest libraries across Europe. On 30 May 1487 Bishop of Caorle visited the monastery as an emissary of the Patriarch of Aquileia. His secretary Paolo Santo Nino wrote in his travelogue that the monks had more than 2,000 volumes ( manuscripts ). Today only 120 still known, a further 100 have been preserved as fragments.

When the monastery middle of the 16th century was almost deserted, ordered Archduke Charles II to the transport of the books in the library of the Jesuit high school in Graz.