Brothers Hospitallers Monastery in Prudnik

On Piastowska Street, in the western part of Prudnik's Old Town, stands the Baroque monastery complex of the Brothers Hospitallers – an order that has been caring for the sick here since 1766. It began as a story of gratitude: a colonel, badly wounded in the Seven Years' War, was healed by a friar and decided to found a hospital in Prudnik. Today the complex comprises the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, the monastery, a pharmacy and the House of St John of God.

History: a colonel's thank-offering

Friedrich Wilhelm von Röder (1718–1781), a lieutenant colonel of the cuirassier regiment stationed in Prudnik, was seriously wounded by grapeshot at the Battle of Świebodzice. He was helped by Brother Martini Probus of the Wrocław community of the Brothers Hospitallers – the same friar who had earlier cured the gravely ill son of a Prudnik burgher named Weidinger. Out of gratitude Röder campaigned for a hospital for local people, and in 1764 King Frederick II granted permission to found a monastery. By 1766 the friar had set up a small hospital with a chapel and a pharmacy on land bought by the colonel. The monastery with its hospital was built in 1782–1783 and the church in 1785–1787; in 1793 a Baroque tower was added, which took 60,000 bricks.

What to see

• The Church of Saints Peter and Paul – single-naved and Baroque, with an unusual north-facing chancel instead of the traditional eastern orientation.
• The high altar with a painting of the patron saints, a gift of the Weidinger family, and two paintings from the 1660s: St Bonaventure and St Louis Bertrand.
• Wall paintings from 1906 by Klinck – the Good Shepherd, the healing at the Pool of Bethesda, the Good Samaritan and scenes from the life of St John of God.
• The Stations of the Cross by Joseph Fahnroth from 1870 and an organ brought from the former Capuchin church.
• The monastery façade – fifteen bays wide, with a stucco portal and a relief of a dove with the dates 1764–2004.

Did you know?

Thanks to their medical skills the Brothers Hospitallers escaped King Frederick William III's secularisation edict of 1810. The monastery had gas lighting as early as 1864. The east wing was built in 1914–1916, and during the First World War a military hospital operated here. After the Second World War the hospital and pharmacy were nationalised, leaving the brothers only the church; they regained the pharmacy in 1991 and the hospital in 2004, and since 2006 it has housed the House of St John of God. The monastery keeps a portrait of its founder, Colonel von Röder.

Tripto tips

The church is a working place of worship, so the interior is best seen before or after services; the Brothers publish the liturgy schedule on their website. About 30 minutes is enough for the church and the monastery façade. Remember that the monastery and the House of St John of God are places of care for the sick and elderly – do not enter the buildings uninvited. The complex lies within the Old Town, so it fits easily into a walk around central Prudnik.