St Thomas's Abbey, Brno

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The Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas, Brno

Abbey church of the Assumption

The south entrance of the church

St Thomas's Abbey in Brno is an Augustinian monastery located in the Czech Republic. The geneticist and Abbot Gregor Mendel was its most famous religious leader to date, and between 1856 and 1863 conducted his experiments on sweet pea plants in the monastery garden. His experiments brought forth two generalizations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.

The Abbey is unique amongst modern Augustinian foundations because it is not called a priory, and indeed it has an abbot whereas all other existing Augustinian friaries are led by a prior.

The Augustinians arrived in Brno in 1346, and John Henry of Luxemburg (Jan Jindřich Lucemburský), Margrave of Moravia, began the construction of their original cloister in 1352. In 1653, the Order moved into the Abbey of St. Thomas at today's Moravian Palace. At that time the Brno noblewoman Sybil Polyxen Františka established a musical foundation for the monastery, with paid musical scholars. This was the early beginning of a long and siginificant musical tradition at the Brno monastery.

Czech composer Pavel Křížkovský also took monastic vows at Brno, teaching liturgical music from 1848 until 1872, and from 1865 he formed an ongoing musical collaboration with the young (lay) composer Leoš Janáček who had come from his home in Hukvaldy and begun as a choirboy at the monastery.

[edit] Mendel Museum

The Augustinian Abbey now hosts the Mendel Museum of Genetics [1] dedicated to the founder of genetics. Visits to the Museum include a walk in the garden in which Gregor Mendel carried out his famous experiments.