The Plasy Monastery was founded in 1144 by Duke Vladislav II as one of the oldest Cistercian monasteries in Bohemia. Monks from the Franconian Langheim settled Plasy. During the Hussites Wars in the first half of the 15th century buildings of the abbey were burnt out and almost all the goods were subsequently taken.
The monastery experienced a second period of prosperity after the Thirty Years‘ War: the baroque new buildings of the monastery, the large foursided courtyards and the pilgrimage church of Marianske Tynice are still characteristic of the landscape today – as are extensive agricultural areas for grain and fruit cultivation.
In 1826, the monastery building with the whole estate was purchased by Klemens von Metternich, who is buried in the Church of Saint Wenceslaus in the family tomb.
House of the Blackheads (Melngalvju nams) is a building situated in the old town of Riga. The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried German merchants in Riga. Major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornaments.
The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28, 1941 and the remains demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999. Today the House of Blackheads serves as a museum and sometimes concert hall.