Kladruby

Kladruby (German: Kladrau) (population 1,400/2003) is a town in the Czech Republic, in the region of Plzeň, near the town Stříbro. The Abbey of Kladruby is a large Benedictine monastery first cited 1115. Its vast Late Baroque Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Giovanni Battista Santini, architect) attests to the secular power and wealth of the abbey, which was dissolved under the regime of Joseph II. The abbot's princely revenue and territories made his naming a matter of considerable concern to the King of Bohemia, whose prerogative it was. In a confrontation with the local hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church over the rights of investiture—a conflict with parallels to the Investiture Controversy of the 12th century— King...