Lubiaz Abbey

The Cistercian abbey at Lubiaz has a main facade two hundred and twenty-three metres long and a floor area that puts it among the largest monastic complexes anywhere - the figure usually quoted is around three hundred rooms. It was founded in 1163 and rebuilt on this scale in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when Silesian Cistercian houses were extremely rich. Then it stopped: dissolved by Prussia in 1810, put to a long series of other uses - a stud, a hospital and a psychiatric institution among them - stripped of its furnishings, and left largely empty. What is restored and open is the Prince's Hall, a two-storey ceremonial room with ceiling painting by Christian Philipp Bentum and marble columns, and the summer refectory. The rest is bare shell under long-term conservation, and walking it is the point: enormous corridors with nothing in them. Michael Willmann, the Silesian baroque painter, worked and is buried here.

History

Duke Bolesław I the Tall invited Cistercian monks from Pforta to Lubiąż, the first of their order in Silesia; building began in 1163, and the foundation charter was drawn up in 1175. Around 1200 the abbey church was rebuilt as the first Brick Gothic building in the region, Bolesław was buried under its high altar in 1201, and the abbey grew into the most important monastery in Silesia, founding six daughter houses (Wikipedia, Lubiąż Abbey).

Highlights

• A 223-metre facade - among the largest monastery buildings in the world.
• The Prince's Hall - two storeys, marble columns, painted ceiling.
• Empty corridors - most of the complex a bare shell after two centuries of other uses.
• Willmann's abbey - the Silesian baroque painter worked and is buried here.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Good to know

Most of the building is unrestored and closed; the visit covers a small fraction of it. Interiors are cold and bare. Visits are guided and seasonal. The church is generally not part of the standard route.

Nearby

Wroclaw is fifty-five kilometres south-east; Trzebnica is north-east.

Key facts