Bela Crkva Pauline Monastery Ruins

Bela crkva, the White Church, is the local name for the ruins of the Pauline monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Moslavačka gora, the low forested range above Kutina. The site lies in a wooded ravine south of the medieval castle of Garić, and a hiking trail leads up to it from the lake at Mikleuška. Scholars regard it as the oldest Pauline monastery in present-day Croatia.

The Paulines were a monastic order founded in medieval Hungary, and their houses spread across the Croatian lands in the following centuries. Bela crkva was founded in the mid-13th century; historians credit Master Tiburtius as its founder, with dates around 1250 given in recent research, a hermit's dwelling recorded at the site in 1257, and the monastery itself explicitly named in 1273. Through the 14th and 15th centuries it grew in wealth and influence, receiving land through donations, and it became a pilgrimage place because of its Marian church. Local nobles also trusted the monks to keep important documents in safe custody there. Ottoman raids into Moslavina between about 1520 and 1544 drove the monks out, and the monastery was never rebuilt.

For centuries the ruins lay under dense forest. Archaeological excavations in 2009 uncovered the plan of the church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the north-eastern part of the complex. It measured about 31.5 by 10.5 metres overall, with a single nave and a polygonal sanctuary, and its interior was paved with brick. A richly profiled late Gothic portal stood in the western front. What visitors see today are low walls and foundations among the trees, with the outline of the church and the monastery buildings readable on the ground.

The walk is as much part of the visit as the ruins. Paths through the woods of Moslavačka gora link Bela crkva with Mikleuška, the Crkveni jarak stream trail and the ruins of Garić castle, and combining two or three of these makes a good half-day outing from Kutina. Bring water and proper footwear, as there are no facilities at the site.