Beuron Archabbey is a major house of the Benedictine Order. It was founded in 1863 by the brothers Maurus and Placidus Wolter, in buildings which until 1802 had housed an Augustinian monastery. Between 1875 and 1887 because of political conditions during the 'Kulturkampf' the monks had to leave the abbey, but used the opportunity to found new communities elsewhere, which afterwards joined together under the leadership of Beuron as the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Beuron Art School, with its emphasis on early Christian and Byzantine art, was influential on religious art of the period. One of the biggest exhibits of this type of art in the United States is at Conception Abbey in Missouri which was founded on principles established by Beuron.
The abbey continues to be a centre of study. The library is the largest monastic library in Germany, with over 400,000 books. Since 1884 the abbey has published the Missale Romanum, a lay missal originally produced by Father Anselm Schott of Beuron. The abbey also houses the Vetus-Latina-Institut (Ancient Latin Institute), which has for its purpose the collection and publication of all extant old Latin translations of the Bible.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.