page_title: Žiče Charterhouse
section_title: Architecture of Žiče Charterhouse
hierarchical_section_title: Žiče Charterhouse / Architecture of Žiče Charterhouse
caption_attribution_description: Slovenščina: Molitvenik
context_page_description: The Žiče Charterhouse was a Carthusian monastery or Charterhouse in the narrow valley of Žičnica Creek, also known as Saint John the Baptist Valley after the church dedicated to St. John the Baptist at the monastery near the village of Žiče and at settlement Špitalič pri Slovenskih Konjicah in the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice in northeastern Slovenia.
  The Žiče Charterhouse was the first Carthusian monastery in the German sphere of influence of the time, and also the first outside France or Italy.
context_section_description: Lay monk Aynard, construction master sent from Grande Chartreuse, influenced much to the arrangement of the premises. The first emergency Charterhouse buildings were build until at least 1165. The scheme or Chartusian monasteries usually comprised three basic elements: monastic church, a small cross corridor (Lesser Cloister) and a great cross corridor. As with first French charterhouses, two monasteries were built here. 
  Upper one (Domus Superior), where the cloister monks used to live according to the strict rule of the Carthusians, they spend time in contemplative prayer and individual work in their cells. Great Cloister linked monastic cells and there was a God's Acre also, where monks were buried. In Žiče Charterhouse there was a crucifix, placed in the middle at first. In 15th Century the crucifix was removed and replaced by cemetery chapel, where priors were buried, which has been preserved until now. Lesser Cloister linked communal rooms and served as an entrance to the St. John the Baptist church and Sacristy. Communal rooms, such as Chapter house, Refectory (common dining room), a kitchen, a Dormitory (a bedroom for lay brothers, who participated at the liturgy on holidays and Sundays) were build around the Lesser Cloister.
  Lower one (Domus Inferior) in the settlement of Špitalič for the lay monks, who had less prayer and spend time in manual labor in the agriculture, winegrowing, as craftsments at grass making, sawmills, brickwork, supporting the upper monastery and contributing to its prosperity. They were mostly illiterate and listened to Holy Mass under leadership and explanations of a procurator. Despite strict order restrictions which prevented the Chartusians from direct activities among people, they were good example of charity. Lower monastery boasted so called Hospice also, where people in need were given charity, as money, clothes, food and medicine, made also of their own herbs, according to the recipes from carthusian library. All the monastic buildings in Špitalič were demolished after dissolution and only the church remained.
caption: Book of Prayers, Žiče Charterhouse, 1423
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