Save the ruins of a Slovak monastery - Katarinka

Year 2018 marks an important milestone in history of Katarinka – this summer we are celebrating 400 years since the founding of the monastery of St. Catherine. Therefore, we decided to celebrate this remarkable anniversary during  the Open Doors Day, which was held at Katarinka traditionally on the 5thJuly, the St. Cyril and Method's Day. This traditional public event took place already for 18th time and attracted more than 1,500 visitors, who came to enjoy the sunny day and the amazing atmosphere. In order to make the day special, our volunteers prepared a unique program and ineresting activities connected to the history of Katarinka and life in 17th century.

There were several special moments, which are worth mentioning – such as the pilgrims from nearby villages, who wandered with their mayors and township flags, the holy mass that was celebrated in front of the church for the first time due to the high number of attendees. After the holy mass, all the visitors were entertained by theatrical performance by theater group from OZ Zámok Hlohovec and dancers from the historical dance group Saltarello, which performed an impressive scene of the wedding of Barbora Thurzová and Kristof Erdödy as well as the act of signature of the founding charter of the monastery. After the show, the visitors could enjoy refreshments in form of delicious garlic soup and cooked sausages prepared by our volunteers.

The program continued with creative workshops for children and with the opening of special history-themed interactive stops located on the site, allowing everyone to experience the atmosphere and life in the 17th century. As usual, we also offered a free tourist guide tours, for those who were interested in the history of Katarinka, our volunteer project and also all the arhceological research done on the location.

The pleasant atmosphere of the day was suddenly interrupted by an afternoon summer rain, which put a slightly earlier end to the event than was originally planned - but we believe everyone has had a great time, enjoyed the time spent at Katarinka as we did and took home nice memories.

The Open Doors day kicked off the summer season at Katarinka – and after such amazing start of the summer, we were eager to welcome new young volunteers who decided to participate in the two-week volunteer camps during July and August. As usually, we organized four summer workshops and each of them awas attended by approximately 35 – 40 volunteers. Simple lifestyle in the heart of nature, voluntary work with the aim of preserving the ruins of the Church and Monastery of St Catherine, archeological research on site, reconstruction of the old crypt, historically themed adventurous activities, great atmosphere, calmness and peace, fun, joy, laughter and many many new firendships, that will definitely last – those are only few associations and things our volunteers could experience during their stay at Katarinka. We hope to see manz of the young faces of our summer volunteers also on our events in autumn and hopefully also in next summer season J