History

In 1622, bishop Karol Habsburg brought Jesuits to Nysa. They settled near the bishop palace, by the church and monastery of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre who moved to the church of St Peter and St Paul. In 1624, the college was created in 14 tenement houses around Rynek Solny, and in 1630, the seminar of St Anne. In the years 1669-1673, the present building of the college was constructed. In 1680, works related to interior décor and painted decorations were completed. The next stage of the construction of the complex was the construction of the church (1688-1692), gymnasium (1722-1725), and the gate connecting the college with the gymnasium (1725).

Following the dissolution of the Order of Jesuits, the church became a filial church of the parish of St James the Greater and St Agnes (in the early 19th century, it was used for some time as a military victual warehouse), and the college was transformed into a state-owned school.

Currently the gymnasium and college house: Carolinum Second Lower and Upper Secondary School, and the seminar building houses the seat of a Music School.

Description

The Jesuit monastery complex is located in the southern part of the chartered town, to the west from the bishop palace and to the south from the market square buildings. The buildings of the monastery complex are situated around the former Rynek Solny and along Sobieskiego Street. From the south, they are limited by the Bielawski Channel.

All buildings comprising the complex are made of brick and were erected on a stone foundation, with plastered façades with Baroque architectural decoration.

The church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with its front façade facing Sobieskiego Street, is the dominant feature of the complex. In was built on a rectangular floor plan, with a chancel slightly narrower from the body, facing north-east, and a two-tower front façade preceded by a portico. On the southern side of the chancel, there is a rectangular sacristy. The church features a gallery and basilica layout. It is topped with a gable roof, and its towers - with tented roofs. Inside, part of the Baroque fittings as well as painted decorations made by Karol Dankwart have survived.

On the land parcel between Sobieskiego Street and the Bielawski Channel, the college (adjoining the church from the south), and the gymnasium buildings were erected. They are connected with a gate with a semi-circular driveway in which there is a coat of arms cartouche. The college is built on the floor plan of an “E” letter, and its longer side is perpendicular to Sobieskiego Street. It is a three-storey building with basements underneath, with two yards (currently, there is a school pitch on one of them). The fourteen-axial front façade is partitioned with pilasters and rectangular window openings in surrounds. The college interior features a one-bay layout with partially preserved fittings. The three-storey gymnasium was built on a rectangular floor plan. In the lower part, the front façade is covered with rusticated strips, and in the upper part it is articulated with pilasters.

The last building of the complex is the former seminar of St Anne located in the northern frontage of former Solny Rynek. It is built on an L-shaped plan. It is a free-standing building. The three-storey eastern wing runs along Solny Square, and the two-storey southern wing along Kramarska Street. The front façade has fourteen axes. The entrance covers two central axes of the ground floor. The building is covered with a hip roof (eastern wing) and a gable roof (southern wing).

The building is accessible to visitors.

compiled by Aleksandra Ziółkowska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Opole, 09-12-2015.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, t. 7: Województwo opolskie, z. 9: Powiat nyski, red. T. Chrzanowski, M. Kornecki, Warszawa 1963.
• Karta ewidencyjna zabytku architektury, Kościół Jezuitów, ob. filialny pw. Wniebowzięcia NMP w Nysie, oprac. G. Grajewski, E. Dymarska, 2004, Archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków w Opolu.
• Karta ewidencyjna zabytku architektury, Kolegium Jezuitów, ob. LO „Carolinum” im. Jana III Sobieskiego w Nysie, oprac. G. Grajewski, E. Dymarska, 2004, Archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków w Opolu.