klášter Hájek
Building · Czechia
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Riders on the pilgrimage path from Prague's Loreta suddenly find a walled Baroque cloister rising out of flat, otherwise treeless farmland, a genuine architectural surprise this close to the city. Its Loreto chapel, one of Bohemia's oldest, got its foundation stone in 1623 and was consecrated in 1625 by Cardinal Harrach; the surrounding early-Baroque monastery, designed by Carlo Lurago and Giovanni Domenico Orsi, was built 1663–1681 with vaulted cloister galleries, corner chapels and a 1703 Marian column in the courtyard. It anchors a 14 km chapel-lined pilgrimage route from Prague's Loreta, with roughly 20 wayside shrines built after 1720, spaced 600–1,100 m apart through Liboc, Břevnov, Řepy, Hostivice, Litovice and Chýně. Closed and used as a detention camp for clergy under communism (1950–53), it was returned to the Franciscans after 1990 and has since had its roofs, walls and chapel frescoes restored.
Café and pub right at the monastery gate, an actual rest stop, not just a photo stop.
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From Wikipedia
Klášter Hájek (německy Waldl, latinsky Sacra silva) je františkánský poutní areál se zahradou a loretánskou kaplí Navštívení Panny Marie, ležící osamoceně ve východní části katastru obce Červený Újezd, zhruba 5 km od západního okraje Prahy. Do kláštera vede poutní cesta z pražské Lorety, podél níž se v blízkosti Hájku zachovala řada výklenkových kaplí.