Arthous Abbey (formerly known as the Abbey of St. Mary of Arthous) was founded in 1167 in a deserted area bordering the Basque Country. The abbey belongs to the Order of Premonsterians.
The abbey was badly damaged due to religious wars in the 16th century. In particular, the Huguenots burned the choir of the church and canonical buildings in 1571, and the archives were eradicated.
The abbey church was built in a late Romanesque style and its monastery buildings reconstructed in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are an interesting example of modern canonical architecture. The abbey ceased to exist completely in 1791 and was used as a farm. A dilapidated church served as a barn. Almost nothing remained of the original monastic buildings except for the foundations of the western and northern walls.
In 2021, the Arthous Abbey is celebrating its origins and its collections which gave birth to the museum. The exceptional sculptures of prehistoric horses discovered in the 1960s in the neighboring town of Sorde-l'Abbaye, of which it is the custodian, are the subject of a photographic exhibition and a new space for promotion: the treasure room.
References:The Chapel of St. Martin is the only completely preserved Romanesque building in Vyšehrad and one of the oldest in Prague. In was built around 1100 in the eastern part of the fortified outer ward. Between 1100 and 1300, the Rotrunda was surrounded by a cemetery. The building survived the Hussite Wars and was used as the municipal prison of the Town of the Vyšehrad Hill.
During the Thirty Years’ War, it was used as gunpowder storage, from 1700 to 1750, it was renovated and reconsecrated. In 1784, the chapel was closed passed to the military management which kept using it as a warehouseand a cannon-amunition manufacturing facility. In 1841, it was meant to be demolished to give way to the construction of a new road through Vyšehrad. Eventually, only the original western entrance was walled up and replaced with a new one in the sountren side. The dilapidating Rotunda subsequently served as a shelter for the poor.