Before the monastery of the Croatian Benedictines was founded here, this was a part of the Podskali district, served by the parish church of St. Cosmas and Damian. When the New Town was founded by Charles IV., Benedictines from the Balkans were invited to settle at the newly built monastery, practical Old Slavonic liturgy and create a centre of Slavic education and literature, in line with the wishes of the founder and thanks to a privilege granted by Pope Clement VI.
This is also why Charles IV. set up a scriptorium, or scribe's workshop, where the Roman as well as Glagolitic alphabets were used. The work created here include the illuminated Emmaus Bible of around 1360, two editions of the Czech translation of the bible, and the Glagolitic part of the Rheim Evengeliary on which the French Kings swore until as late as 1782.
The Church of Our Lady and the Slavonic Patron Saints was conserved in the presence of the ruler and his family in 1372, on Easter Monday, when a passage from the New Testament on Christ's journey to the Emmaus is usually read.
This is why the complex has also been referred to as Emmaus Monastery. From the 15^th and until the late 16^th century the church belonged to the Utraquists. In the 1635, Ferdinand III. invited the Spanish Benedictines from Montserrat to the monastery to which a storey was added and which was also partly Barocised. In the 19^th century, the Benedictines of Beuron in Tyrol were invited, and had the entire complex re-Gothicised. After the creation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia in 1918, only the Czech membrs of the order remained, and Slavonic liturgy was partly restored. On February 14^th, 1945, the complex was hit by a stray fire fraction bomb and heavily damaged in the ensuing fire. In 196-69, the two new concrete spires were built, designed by architect F. M. Cerny.
The monastery and the church have been very richly decorated from the very beginning. Some of the decorations have been preserved in the cloisters. The cycle of Gothic wall paintings dating from 1360-1370 is one of most valuable relics of that time in Bohemia. The Early Baroque refectory is currency used as a concert and lecture hall.