Rudy Cistercian Abbey

The coat of arms of Rudy Abbey bore the letters MORS, Latin for "death", but they meant something else: Morimond, the French abbey from which the local Cistercians descended. For over 550 years the monks founded villages, fishponds, breweries and ironworks in the Ruda valley, and after the abbey was dissolved it became the residence of the Dukes of Ratibor, with 120 rooms. Today the former Cistercian abbey and palace complex brings together a basilica with a miraculous painting, the restored abbot's palace and a 95-hectare landscaped park.

History: from Cistercians to the Dukes of Ratibor

Around the middle of the 13th century Duke Władysław of Opole brought Cistercians from Jędrzejów to Rudy and granted them seven villages; building began around 1252, and the first document dates from 1258. The monks bred fish, kept bees, made charcoal and tar, and a system of dams and canals powered iron, copper and glass works. In 1747, in nearby Stodoły, they fired up the first blast furnace in Upper Silesia. The abbey ran a school, later a grammar school, and in 1765–1776 a college training teachers.

On 26 November 1810 a Prussian commissioner read out the decree of dissolution, and 32 monks had to leave. The library of over 10,000 volumes was dispersed. In 1820 the estate passed to the Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg and then to Victor von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, the first Duke of Ratibor, who turned the abbey into a palace and laid out the park. In January 1945 Soviet troops burned the church and the palace. The church was rebuilt by 1950, but the palace has only been rising from ruin since 1998, when the Diocese of Gliwice took over the complex.

What to see

• The Basilica of the Assumption: a Gothic, three-aisled church on a Latin-cross plan, remodelled in the Baroque era and a minor basilica since 2009.
• The chapel with the painting of Our Lady of Humility from the 15th century, crowned in 2000.
• Paintings by Michael Willmann and Ignaz Raab in the interior.
• The porch above the crypt of the Dukes of Ratibor, with the 19th-century cast-iron sarcophagus of Duke Victor and his wife.
• The cloister garth with its arcades and the Baroque abbot's palace with its courtyard.
• The English-style park with three tree trails.

Interesting facts

The painting of Our Lady of Humility is probably a copy of an icon given to the Cistercians in 1228 by the Bulgarian princess Viola, wife of Duke Casimir of Opole. The church is regarded as one of the oldest Marian shrines in Silesia. It also holds relics of St Valentine, and by the approach avenue stands a stone statue of St John of Nepomuk from 1724. Rudy founded the second Cistercian monastery in Upper Silesia, at Jemielnica.

Tripto tip

The complex is at ul. Cysterska 4 in Rudy, at the heart of the "Cistercian Landscape Compositions of Rudy Wielkie" Landscape Park, crossed by walking and cycling trails. The basilica is an active shrine, and the former monastic buildings house the Diocese of Gliwice's formation and education centre with guest rooms and exhibitions; check the abbey website for current rules on visiting the interiors before you go. Allow 2–3 hours for the church, courtyards and a walk in the park. The trip is easy to combine with the historic narrow-gauge railway in Rudy, whose station dates back to 1899.