he Cistercian Monastery in Osek, also called the pearl of the Ore Mountains, is a monument of European importance. Foundations of the Monastery were laid at the end of the 12th century by the Czech noble house of Hrabišic, which invited Cistercian monks to Osek in 1196. The three-aisle Romanesque basilica went through major reconstruction in the 18th century under the leadership of Octaviano Broggio. The heyday of the Monastery came at the turn of the 17th and the 18th centuries under the abbot Benedikt Littwerig.