This architectural complex is a great example of the evolution of styles over consecutive centuries. 

History

The foundation of the Cistercian abbey in Podhale dates back to the first half of the 13th century. The first seat of the monastery was Ludźmierz. The initiative to invite Cistercian monks to settle in this location came from the Kraków voivode, Teodor of the family of Gryfit. Having obtained the necessary privilege from Henry the Bearded, as well as the bishop’s consent to build a church dedicated to Our Lady, Teodor brought the Cistercians (most likely from Jędrzejów) to the uninhabited estate. The monks decided that Szczyrzyc, part of the monastery’s endowment, would be better place for a permanent settlement. Before the arrival of the monks, the place was known as castrum de Cyrich, a hill fort located within today’s Poznachowice Górne. It was probably the centre of the ducal administration. After the Tatar invasion in 1241, the monastery was moved to Szczyrzyc; the 1243 sources the first time mention monasterio de Cyrich. The process required confirmation of all bequests made by the deceased founder and the consolidation of the property. On 21 June 1251, Bolesław the Chaste issued a document which released the subjects of the monastery from taxes on passage, maintenance of guards, land, transport of royal merchandise, farm, and from the jurisdiction of town courts. In 1251 the same duke confirmed the privilege from 1234 regarding the establishment of villages in Podhale. Other privileges followed later on, and the Cistercians settled on the Stradomka River for good. They spread the veneration of the Mother of God, first of the statue of Our Lady of Ludźmierz and later of the painting of the Miraculous Virgin Mary of Szczyrzyc. Soon after arriving in Szczyrzyc, the monks built a new church and monastery. In 1259 the monastery was plundered during another Tatar inroad. In the 14th century, the monastery gained in importance and Szczyrzyc became the seat of the regional tribunal. During the reign of Casimir the Great, the monastery owned 33 villages and the town of Nowy Targ. However, the abbey was not in the best shape. In 1580, commissioned by the Holy See, Abbot Edmund a Cruce visited the abbey and reported that “the monastery buildings are wooden and completely ancient, except for the church. The church and the monastery need equipment.” The inspector emphasised that there had been only five priests in the monastery, among them only three local ones. At the beginning of the 17th century, Stanisław Drohojowski was nominated abbot. In 1620 he started to build a new monastery and remodel the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. During the wars in the 17th and 18th centuries, the monastery suffered heavy damages. In 1705 the Swedish troops looted the complex. Different benefactors and the local people rushed to support the reconstruction. Miraculous images were also provided. In January 1765, the abbey was consumed by a fire, and after that, it was never able to restore its former condition. In 1794 Abbot Onufry Grzymisławski died, and the Austrian authorities did not allow a new one to be elected. Denial of the status of an abbey led to the take-over of the monastery and abbey property. What followed was the appropriation of liturgical equipment from the monastery treasury. The first half of the 19th century was marked by the constant struggle with the Austrian authorities. The monks were taken away the remnants of their fields and forests; the library was liquidated, and candidates were denied entry in the novitiate. Everything was done to force the monks to leave the site. In the end, the monastery did not disappear because the monks were needed to run schools and provide pastoral care in Szczyrzyc, Góra św. Jana, and Jodłownik. The Szczyrzyc estate was exchanged for salt mines in Kałusz. In 1843 Czech monks were brought to the monastery. In 1848 the Polish Cistercians returned. In 1868 the monastery bought back part of its former estate from Countess Dzieduszycka. In 1918 Pope Benedict XV restored the abbey in Szczyrzyc. In August 1938, Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha, the metropolitan of Kraków, crowned the worshipped image of the Mother of God. On 19 June 1983, during a solemn service at Jasna Góra, Pope John Paul II consecrated golden crowns for the Miraculous Image of the Virgin Mary of Szczyrzyc. They were installed by the primate of Poland, Cardinal Józef Glemp. During WW2, the Cistercians conducted clandestine classes in Szczyrzyc, and the abbey was a shelter for individuals persecuted by the occupation authorities. In recognition of its services to the underground resistance movement, the monastery was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross. In 1955 the communist authorities closed down the private Cistercian college that had started back during WW2 clandestine education. As a result of the land reform and nationalisation, the abbey also lost all its land, forests, and farm buildings. Only recently, the monastery has regained a brewery. They brew beer according to a recipe from 1623.

Description

The Cistercian abbey complex is situated in the Stradomka River valley, in the centre of the village of Szczyrzyc. From the end of the 13th century, part of the complex was a quarry stone church.   Traces of the original, Gothic temple can be seen, among others, in the pointed stone portals. The present Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was set on a Latin cross plan, i.e. the nave and the chancel are of equal length. A slender Rococo turret with an ave bell towers above the church. The construction was completed by the successor of the first abbot. The whole church has barrel vaults. Most of the interior fittings of the Szczyrzyc church is made in the Baroque and Rococo styles. The exception is a 15th-century crucifix. The main Baroque altar was funded in 1642 by Abbot Remigiusz Łukowski. On the sides of the altar, there are two figures: St Stanislaus (with the funder’s face) and St Adalbert (with the face of King Sigismund III Vasa). The origin of the Miraculous Image of the Virgin Mary, initially in the Baroque side altar, is unclear. It probably comes from the equipment of an older, Gothic church. In 1727 Abbot Romiszowski ordered crowns and dresses for Our Lady of Ludźmierz and Szczyrzyc from Kraków goldsmiths. The church has several epitaphs of abbots from the mid-18th century: Stanisław Drohojowski, Remigiusz Łukowski, and Gerard Pastoriusz. The organ, built in the years 1885-1892 by Tomasz Fell, are set in a neoclassical screen. The interior is decorated with Art Nouveau polychrome by Jan Łukowski (1913). The monastery complex, only partially open to the public, consists of the church, monastery, courtyard with a late Baroque gate (1761), patio, utility yard, porter’s house, coach house, granary, mill, and brewery. The two-storey monastery buildings are grouped around a square patio. The granary from the 17th century attracts attention. It is a two-storey building, made of brick and rectangular, covered by a hipped roof, with a stone rusticated portal with the Korczak coat of arms belonging to Abbot Stanisław Drohojewski. Today it houses a museum set up in the 1950s. It exhibits a Europe-unique map of the world from the 12th century, liturgical equipment and handwritten books from the monastic library. Among the paintings from the monastery collections and furnishings from the nearby churches, the most noteworthy is the image of the Sorrowful Christ with Mary, St John the Evangelist, St John the Baptist, St Andrew and two funders of the Ogończyk coat of arms, attributed to the Cistercian Stanisław Samostrzelnik from Mogiła.

Museum opening hours: weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sundays and holidays: from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Author of the note Roman Marcinek, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 21/08/2014

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