Cistercian Abbey in Koprzywnica

In the high-altar painting of the Assumption, made by Bartłomiej Strobel in 1645, tradition has it that King Władysław IV Vasa appears among the figures. This portrait is one of many secrets of the former Cistercian abbey in Koprzywnica near Sandomierz: a Romanesque church of dressed stone, consecrated in 1207, with a surviving monastery wing and a chapter house resting on two columns. It was one of the easternmost Cistercian abbeys in Europe.

From Morimond to dissolution

The abbey was founded around 1183 by Count Mikołaj Bogoria Skotnicki with the support of Duke Casimir the Just. In 1185 the first monks arrived from Morimond in France, led by Abbot Theodoric. The church was built from the early 13th century under Master Simon, also known for his work at Wąchock; Bishop Pełka (Fulko) of Kraków consecrated it to the Virgin Mary and St Florian. The Mongols plundered the monastery in 1241 and again in 1259, and Duke Bolesław the Chaste supported its reconstruction.

Later centuries brought a Gothic remodelling under Archbishop Jarosław Bogoria Skotnicki, a fire in 1508 and a Baroque modernisation in the 17th century, including a façade designed by the Jesuit Józef Karśnicki. In 1819 the tsarist authorities dissolved the order, and since 1821 the church has served the parish. Most of the monastery buildings were pulled down for building material, and in 1915 a fire destroyed the roofs and the bell turret; for a long time the church was thatched with straw. The interior was thoroughly restored in 1960–1964.

What to see

• The basilica – three aisles, a transept and rib vaults of dressed stone. Look for the dogtooth frieze, the bricked-up rose window and the keystones with interlace decoration; the finest, showing the Lamb of God, is at the crossing.
• Gothic wall paintings from the early 15th century on the south wall of the chancel – the Last Judgement and the story of Mary.
• The 1645 high altar with Strobel's painting, and choir stalls with painted scenes from the life of St Bernard of Clairvaux.
• The pulpit of around 1730, with a canopy carried by angels and putti and crowned with a pelican, and the Renaissance sarcophagus of the Niedrzwicki family (1581) by Santi Gucci.
• The chapter house in the east wing – a Romanesque hall with rib vaulting on two columns, one with its original capital. It houses a lapidarium of carved stone fragments from the church and monastery. On the outer wall of the wing you can see traces of hacked-off pilaster strips, sockets for ceiling beams and corbels carved as grotesque masks.

Did you know?

• The bell turret over the crossing resembles an upturned chalice; the original of 1678 was made by the Kraków master Michał Pfaf, and after the fire of 1915 it was rebuilt to the original design.
• Next to the church stands the former abbot's palace known as the "Opatówka", built in 1620 under Abbot Hieronim Ossoliński.
• After the dissolution, the Cistercians remained in Koprzywnica until the last of the monks died.

Tripto tip

St Florian's is an active parish church; the monastery part with the chapter house can be visited by prior arrangement at the parish office. Allow 45–60 minutes for the church and chapter house. Koprzywnica lies a dozen or so kilometres south-west of Sandomierz and is one of the stops on the Cistercian Trail – combine it with Sandomierz and the Dominican monastery in Klimontów.