The Foundation of the Padise Monastery

he Padise Monastery was founded on the Simmiku or Kloostri River in a wooded and sparsely inhabited part of the historical Harju County in the early 14th century. The Cistercian Order sought to build their houses in remote places in the woods or marshlands, far from towns and densely populated areas, where it was possible for monks to devote themselves entirely to religious life and where the new lands needed to be cultivated and settled. Male Cistercian monasteries were, as a rule, situated in places where there was a supply of running water as water was used to operate gristmills to grind grain into flour, and other mills. Preferably, they were built on a site near the river where a road connecting towns crossed the river. Thus, the historical Tallinn-Haapsalu Road crossing the ford at Padise, approximately 50 km from Reval (Tallinn), was well suited.

The Padise Monastery can trace its origins back to landholdings at Padise, in the area of Määraküla and Harju-Risti, owned by its predecessor, the Daugavgrīva (German: Dünamünde) Monastery, located at the estuary of the Daugava River in Latvia. After the closure of Daugavgrīva Monastery in the early 14th century a new monastery was established at Padise.

nlike the mendicant orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, etc.), who founded their centres in cities and whose aim was to engage with ordinary people, the Cistercians placed great stress on isolation. Ordinary people were not allowed to enter the monastery, not even the monastery church and, in the same way, the Cistercians, as a rule, were not allowed to go out into the world, except in cases of dire need. For local people a small church or chapel was built outside the monastery walls. At Padise the remains of a small church, probably dedicated to St. Anthony, were discovered in 2009, when a bike road was built between the big road and the entranceway to the manorial estate. There was a graveyard close by where the local people were buried.

Archaeological excavations on the remains of St. Anthony’s chapel in 2009. Photo: Villu Kadakas