Lubiąż Abbey

About

Lubiąż Abbey (Polish: Opactwo cystersów w Lubiążu; German: Kloster Leubus) is a former Cistercian monastery in Lubiąż, in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship of southwestern Poland, located about 54 km (34 mi) northwest of Wrocław. With a main facade measuring 223 metres (732 ft), Lubiąż is one of the largest abbeys ever constructed. The monastery was founded by the Silesian Duke Bolesław I the Tall, who had the foundation charter drawn up in 1175. Monks from the Cistercian Abbey of Pforta founded the new monastery on the then-densely wooded bank of the Oder. Lubiąż developed into the most important monastery in Silesia and played a significant role in the settlement and development of Silesia. It founded six daughter houses and owned dozens of villages and manors, making the abbey wealthy and able to withstand several wars and crises. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was rebuilt as one of the largest and most representative examples of Baroque architecture in Silesia. It was disestablished after the First Silesian War and used by the Prussian state until the end of World War II, after which it was plundered and fell into disrepair. After the fall of communism in Poland, major restoration...

The abbey is situated near a ford across the Oder river. Originally, the area had been a fortified site of pagan worship. This complex was presumably destroyed by 1109. Later, a Benedictine monastery and church of Saint James may have been established about 1150, but, if it had ever existed, had already been abandoned before 1163. At any rate, the area was densely forested well into the 12th century. The area had been mainly inhabited by Poles, however, German settlement in the area slowly increased.

At this time the area belonged to the Duchy of Silesia, bequeathed by Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth of Poland to his eldest son Władysław II in 1138. In a fratricidal conflict of the Polish Piast dynasty, Władysław was expelled by his younger brother and fled to Altenburg in the Holy Roman Empire. With the aid by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, however, his sons were restored to their Silesian heritage in 1163.

Władysław's eldest son, Duke Bolesław I the Tall, had spent several years in German exile. When he assumed the rule of Lower Silesia, he invited Cistercian monks from Pforta Abbey on the Saale River (in present-day Thuringia ) and settled them in Lubiąż as the first of their order in Silesia. Due to lack of funding and political turmoil, construction, which started in 1163, dragged on for years. The first monastery complex was finally completed 1175, when Duke Bolesław I issued the official foundation charter at Grodziec Castle. Through drainage works the monks reclaimed land in the swampy environs of the monastery, implemented three-field crop rotation and laid out vineyards. Their efforts were successful and marked the beginning of the medieval German Ostsiedlung to Silesia. Lubiąż was, at the time of its foundation, the furthest east point of German settlement in Slavic lands.

From its foundation to the cession of Silesia to Poland in 1945, Lubiąż Abbey was widely known by its German name, Kloster Leubus. Its Latin name was Abbatia Lubensis. It was dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.

About 1200 the abbey church was rebuilt, at that time the first Brick Gothic building in the region. When Duke Bolesław I died in 1201, he was buried under the high altar. The rise of Lubiąż continued under the rule of his son Duke Henry I the Bearded and his consort Hedwig of Andechs. Henry's reign brought a considerable increase in power in Silesia, including through the acquisition of the Duchy of Krakow in 1232, which made him Senior Duke of Poland. His rule ushered in a heyday of the monastery. In 1202 the monastery already owned 27 villages and towns, some of which it had built itself and some of which had been donated to it.

The 13th century also brought with it an expansion of the reformist Cistercians originating from Lubiąż, which manifested itself in the takeover and re-establishment of monasteries in different parts of Poland. In 1220, Pope Honorius III handed over the Cistercian Trzebnica Abbey, which was founded by Hedwig, to Lubiąż for supervision. Soon afterwards, the Bishop of Kraków Iwo Odrowąż summoned some Cistercians from Lubiąż to Lesser Poland in 1222, gave them the village of Mogiła and donated the local monastery church as the nucleus for a new monastery. Mogiła—which, according to the founding myth, was founded over the grave of Wanda, the daughter of the legendary founder of Kraków, Krak —became Lubiąż's first daughter monastery. Silesian dukes Henry the Bearded and later his son Henry II the Pious were urged by the Bishop of Kraków to use the economically and culturally successful monastery for the further development of the country. In 1227, the Piasts founded Henryków Abbey, named after the sovereign, in Henryków, as the second daughter monastery of Lubiąż and the second Cistercian foundation in Silesia. From Henryków, the Cistercians of Lubiąż took over Krzeszów Abbey, which had been founded by the Benedictines forty years earlier. In 1231, the Cistercians of Lubiąż received the right to establish as many mills on the Oder as they pleased.

The region was devastated during the first Mongol invasion of Poland in 1241. However, Lubiąż monastery and its monastic properties were miraculously spared, leading the abbey to play a significant role in the rebuilding of the country. However, a stagnation started following the death of Duke Henry II the Pious on April 9, 1241 at the Battle of Legnica. Succession disputes resulted in the general disintegration of Silesia over the next few decades. Nevertheless, monks from Lubiąż came to Kamieniec in 1246 to take over the town's 1210-founded Augustinian monastery, officially settling it in 1249 following the intervention of Pope Innocent IV.

The last monastery founded by Lubiąż monks was the monastery at Byszewo, which was founded in 1256. However, the monastery quickly dissolved and in 1288 relocated to what is today Koronowo Monastery.

By the middle of the 13th century, Lubiąż Abbey had founded around 70 villages, settled by German colonists. That the Aabey had become very wealthy by the late 13th century is evidenced by a 1280 complaint documenting the "incessant begging" of locals to partake in the abbey's riches. Monks at Lubiąż also composed the Chronicon Polono-Silesiacum around this time. By the 14th century Lubiąż became a cultural center of all East-Central Europe, with the monastery school and library (scriptorium) being especially notable. The economic strength of the monastery was consolidated from 1322 onwards by several gold mines in the area of Złotoryja and other mines. In 1327 the Silesian duke Henry VI the Good declared himself a vassal of King John of Bohemia, and when he died without male heirs in 1335, his lands including Lubiąż fell to the Kingdom of Bohemia. The monastery continuously expanded its land holdings and owned extensive estates and around 65 villages with large agricultural estates in Silesia, but also had properties in the east, near Oświęcim, and in the north, in Greater Poland.

The good financial situation made it possible to renovate the monastery buildings in a Gothic style, since the monastery church had become too small for the growing monastery. I 1307, the foundation stone for the new brick gothic basilica was laid. This phase of construction lasted for decades, and the current structure of the abbey church dates back to this era. In this time, several princely Chapels and tombs, such as that of Bolesław III the Generous, were built.

The heyday ended abruptly with the Hussite Wars, which reached Silesia from 1428. Lubiąż was affected not only as a Catholic center, but also because of its riches. The Hussites plundered and pillaged the complex, devastated large parts of the monastery's villages and plunged Lubiąż into a long economic crisis. The monastery had hardly recovered from these raids and had just restored the monastery buildings when, in 1492, Jan II the Mad expelled the Cistercian monks and repurposed the monastery to a hunting lodge. The Cistercians were not able to return until seven years later, when Jan II retired to Frankfurt an der Oder in Brandenburg.

In 1498, Andreas Hoffman became Abbot, continuing in this position until 1524. Hoffman returned the abbey back to its former purpose, and fortified it with stone earthen ramparts in the case of another war. In 1508, he had the abbey church, which had been in ruins since the Hussite invasion, restored. The expansive costs of this restoration were covered by the revival of the monastery economy.

With the advent of the reformation in 1517, the 16th century did not begin promisingly for the monastery. Over the course of this century, the abbey recorded ever-smaller entry numbers, and the foundation suffered. In addition, Protestant polities such as the Duchy of Legnica greatly expanded their holdings at the expense of the weakened abbey. Although Silesia was returned to Catholic hands by 1526, the monastery was unable to reverse its decline.

After almost two centuries of decline, the situation improved significantly under Abbot Rudolf von Hennersdorf. This development was initiated with the construction of the large gatehouse in 1601. This was followed by a renovation of the abbey Church from 1608 to 1636, which was refurbished in the baroque style. However, the Thirty Years' War brought yet another setback. The monastery was occupied by Swedish troops and their Saxon allies, who plundered the newly renovated Church. Significant portions of the monastery's library were plundered and sent down the Oder to the Swedish-occupied Stettin. There the plundered riches fell victim to a fire in 1679. During the occupation, the monks had to flee to Wrocław, which was largely unaffected by the war.

Rebuilding and flowering after the Thirty Years' War

After the end of the war, the Counter-Reformation reached what was then Austrian Silesia. All over the abbey's area, existing buildings were renovated and new buildings were built in the baroque style. Despite the traditional Cistercian compulsion towards modest architecture, the open-minded monks did not object to the exuberant baroque renovations. Abbot Arnold Freiberger (abbot 1636–1672) presided over this growth. The abbey's many destroyed revenue sources were rebuilt, and many new ones were built. With the economic upturn, the enormous debts, especially taken on during the war, could be paid off. The Habsburgs took a personal hand in the rebuilding of the abbey, seeing it as a means to reconstruct the influence of Catholicism in the area. One prominent example of the abbey's role in the Counter-Reformation was the construction of St. Valentine's Parish Church in Lubiąż village. Despite these successes, the Protestant-settled villages and their Protestant rulers around the monastery restricted its growth and stymied the efforts of the Counter-Reformation in Silesia.

Because of the gradual defeat of Protestantism in Silesia, Lubiąż Monastery regained great cultural importance. In 1660, Arnold Freiberger had recruited the painter Michael Willmann to work for the monastery. Before that, Willmann worked at the Prussian court in Berlin and Königsberg, but he opened his workshop in Lubiąż in 1666, where he was able to carry out lucrative orders not only for Lubiąż but also for other Cistercian institutions in the area. In the 40 years that he spent in Lubiąż, the abbey became a center of Silesian baroque painting, thanks in part to its skilled workshop staff. Willmann died in 1706 and was buried in the monastery crypt, even though he was not a monk, as an expression of gratitude towards the artist.

In 1672, Johann Reich was elected Abbot of Lubiąż. Abbot Reich continued the work of his predecessor until 1691 and the good financial situation of the monastery enabled him to redesign the monastery. The first construction project, the renovation of the princely chapel, started in 1670 under Reich's predecessor, Freiberger, and was completed ten years later. The redesign of the monastery church of the Assumption took place from 1672 to 1681. The predominantly Gothic monastery buildings were torn down. The two wings of the new complex were completed in 1699, but due to lack of funds further expansion of the complex was abandoned. Reich's successors continued the interior renovation of the monastery well into the 18th century. The abbots had a town house erected in Legnica, and perhaps the most visible feature of the modern abbey, the double-towered facade, was completed. In 1727, a calvary hill was built near the village of Lubiąż.

While the monastery benefited from the Habsburg rulers and the Counter-Reformation led by them, the abbey's heyday was abruptly ended in 1742. After the First Silesian War, victorious Prussia was awarded almost all of Silesia, and with it Lubiąż abbey, in the Treaty of Berlin. Even though the Protestant Prussians were, in principle, tolerant of Catholic beliefs, state Protestantism inevitably took its toll on the abbey. Due to the disenfranchisement of the great Catholic foundations, the abbey's revenue sources quickly dried up. The abbey buckled under high tax duties, and was forced to sell off large portions of its treasury, including much of its coin collection, gem-encrusted gold and silver liturgical vessels, and precious vestments. The abbey orchestra, which performed in the Prince's Hall, was dissolved and the instruments and scores left behind for sale. Finally, the abbey was dissolved on November 21, 1810. The holdings of the abbey, including 59 villages, 32 farms, a brickyard, and a handful of small manufactories, were nationalized. A year later, after the closure, 471 valuable paintings, including several by Willmann, were relocated to the new Gemäldegalerie in Wrocław. The same was done with large portions of the monastery library and archives. At the time of dissolution, the abbey counted as its members 47 brothers, 2 clerics, and 2 lay brothers.