The Cistercians from Vyšší Brod are entitled to land according to church restitutions, ruled the Constitutional Court

Brno/Vyšší Brod - The Cistercian Monastery in Vyšší Brod is entitled to land in the cadastre of the villages of Vyšší Brod and Frymburk in the Český Krumlov region covering approximately 2000 hectares. It regained these lands in church restitution from 2016 to 2018, but Lesy ČR filed a series of lawsuits. Although these were dismissed by the Regional Court in České Budějovice, the High Court in Prague reached the opposite conclusion and ruled that the land would not be returned. Today, the Constitutional Court upheld the appeal of the Cistercians and stated that their claim to the land is legitimate. It annulled the decision of the High Court.

"It's not so much about the land, which is a material thing. It's more about the affirmation of rights and confirmation that we are a rule of law. It means that truth really matters and the court confirmed that we have been loyal to the state," said the Prior of the Cistercian Monastery in Vyšší Brod, Justin Jan Berka, to ČTK.

Although the property was confiscated from the Cistercians based on the Beneš Decrees, this occurred only after 1948 and, according to reporting judge David Uhlíř, these decrees served only as a pretext for the continuation of property injustices. According to Uhlíř, it is evident that the Cistercians in Vyšší Brod were proper citizens of First Republic Czechoslovakia and did not collaborate with the Nazis; on the contrary. Members of the order were displaced or interned, and the Nazis confiscated their property. Between 1945 and 1948, there were two attempts at confiscation by the Czechoslovak state, but neither was successful. After 1948, two further confiscation administrative acts were issued under the Beneš Decrees, and according to the Cistercians, these decisions also exhibit significant formal flaws. "The monastery was the subject of religious persecution," added Uhlíř. The convent building, the monastery, and the monastery church had already been returned to the Cistercians according to the law in 1990.

Uhlíř also stated that general courts, according to established jurisprudence, cannot proceed formally; they must evaluate cases sensitively and individually. "The rule of law must not create further injustices," stated Uhlíř.

According to Berka, the monastery will now have to secure a company that will take care of the acquired property. "We want to reforest the area, as it is heavily logged from state forests and affected by bark beetle. But we will take care of that; we are used to it," said the prior.

The Cistercian Monastery in Vyšší Brod was founded in 1259 by Vok of Rožmberk. The Vyšší Brod Monastery is the only functioning male Cistercian monastery in the Czech Republic.