Emmaus Monastery, Gothic monastery in New Town, Czech Republic

Emmaus Monastery is a Benedictine abbey founded in 1347 in New Town, Prague. Its church, consecrated in 1372, has a facade with tall Gothic windows and a large pointed-arch window; the two slender spires with copper-green caps are concrete replacements from 1968 for the western twin towers destroyed by the U.S. bombing raid of 14 February 1945. A long wing with a steep red roof and rows of small windows adjoins flat-roofed sections with red tile parapets.

Charles IV founded the monastery in 1347 for Slavic Benedictines from Croatia, and the church was consecrated in 1372. A U.S. air raid on 14 February 1945 destroyed the church's west twin towers, which were replaced in 1968 by concrete spires.

The monastery was founded for Slavic Benedictines using the Church Slavonic liturgy, and the Reims Gospel, a manuscript Charles IV gave the community, later entered the treasury of Reims Cathedral. Since 1990 the Benedictine order has again administered the site, with three monks, two of whom live there.

The complex is bounded by Vyšehradská, Trojická, Pod Slovany and Na Slovanech streets in New Town, a short walk from the Vltava embankment. The monastery church and cloister are the parts shown to visitors; the convent buildings also house the abbey offices and several organisations. The church's west front, with its two concrete spires, faces the street and is the easiest point to recognise.

The cloister walls display a unique series of biblical scenes painted in the 14th century that are now only faintly visible. The colors faded over the centuries, yet you can still see figures and symbolic animals between the stone columns.