Czech Republic Guide
South Moravia
Žďár nad Sázavou
The highest point in the Bohemian-Moravian Uplands, or Vysočina, is around 40km northeast of Jihlava, though the whole range is actually more like a high rolling plateau. This has always been a poor region, but it's worth heading out into the hinterland to see the Cistercian monastery near ŽD´ÁR NAD SÁZAVOU ( 
www.zdarns.cz ). Established in the thirteenth century, the town has grown hugely since World War II to become one of the largest in these parts, producing, among other things, ice skates. The monastery complex itself lies a three-kilometre walk (or short bus #2 ride) north through the grey new town – instructive if nothing else. As you approach the woods and fishponds, you'll see a small bridge decorated with the familiar figures of eighteenth-century saints; on the other side lies the monastery, now back in the hands of the Kinský family.
A ticket office near the entrance gate provides information on the whole complex, which is the work of Giovanni Santini (who also had a hand in the monasteries of Plasy and Kladruby, near Plzeň), perhaps the most gifted architect of the Czech Counter-Reformation. His two great talents were marrying Gothic and Baroque forms in a new way, and producing buildings with a humour and irony often lacking in eighteenth-century architecture. The monastery church isn't a particularly good example, but the wooded hill to the south of the complex conceals one that is: the UNESCO-protected Zelená hora (Green Hill) pilgrimage church (May– Sept Tues– Sun 9am–5pm; April & Oct Sat & Sun 9am–5pm; 60Kč). It's a unique and intriguing structure, with zigzag cemetery walls forming a decagon of cloisters around the central star-shaped church, a giant mushroom sprouting a half-formed, almost Byzantine dome, dedicated to sv Jan Nepomucký (St John of Nepomuk). The interior is filled with details of his martyrdom, along with symbolic and numerical references to the saint and the Cistercians. On the pulpit, a gilded relief depicts his being thrown off the Charles Bridge in Prague by the king's men, while everywhere in macabre repetition are the saint's severed tongue and the stars that appeared above his head. Back in the main part of the monastery there's a Muzeum knihy (Book Museum; April & Oct Sat & Sun 8am– noon & 12.30–4pm; May, June & Sept Tues– Sun same hours; July & Aug Tues– Sun 9am– noon & 12.30–5pm), housed in the Santini-designed stables, with swirling zigzag patterning on the ceiling. The exhibition on Santini himself and other personalities of the local Baroque (daily 9am–5pm) is in the former convent, along with a display of old pianos.
Žďár is just an hour's fast train ride from Brno; the town centre is 1km north of the train station, and it's another 2km to the monastery (both sections are covered by bus #2).
Hotels include U labutě, námestí Republiky 70 ( 
566 622 949, www.hotelulabute.cz ; Price: 501-1000Kč), offering simply furnished but smart en suites in an old roadside inn, and the less attractive Hotelový dům Morava ( 566 625 826, 
morava@cerum.cz; Price: Under 500Kč), a brick-and-concrete ziggurat below the square offering spartan doubles, triples and quads. Teferna, a decent hostinec by the monastery, serves Starobrno. A little further up the road you come to the Pilská nádrž lakeside campsite (May– Sept).