Benedictine Abbey in Żarnowiec

On 10 August 1946 twelve Benedictine nuns from Vilnius arrived at the empty convent above Lake Żarnowiec — with a few belongings and a single goat. They brought back to life a place where no nun had lived since 1866, though its history reaches back to the mid-13th century. Today the Benedictine Abbey in Żarnowiec is one of the oldest monastic complexes in Pomerania and also a living community that opens its Gothic cloisters and its convent museum, known as the Treasury, to visitors.

History: Cistercian nuns, Benedictines and nearly eight centuries

In 1215 the Cistercians of Oliwa received the village of Żarnowiec by ducal grant, and they founded a convent of Cistercian nuns here. The sisters date the foundation to 1240–1245; some studies give 1235. Duke Mestwin II confirmed the foundation in 1279. The church was built in the last quarter of the 13th century and enlarged after 1389 at the initiative of the Oliwa Cistercians.

The Middle Ages were hard on the convent: the Hussites came in 1433, plague killed eleven nuns in 1440, and during the Thirteen Years' War the estates were looted by mercenaries of the Teutonic Order. In 1462 the Battle of Świecino was fought by Lake Żarnowiec on the nuns' land; tradition says the fallen Teutonic commander Fritz von Raveneck was buried in the convent church. In 1589, at the request of the Bishop of Włocławek, Abbess Magdalena Mortęska of Chełmno sent seven Benedictine nuns, and the last three Cistercian sisters left. Prussia secularised the estates in 1772 and formally dissolved the abbey in 1834; the last nun living here died in 1866. After the Second World War, following an 80-year gap, the convent was taken over by the sisters from Vilnius led by Prioress Edyta Samuk.

What to see

• The parish church from the last quarter of the 13th century, enlarged after 1389.
• The Gothic cloisters, partly open to visitors.
• The Treasury, the convent museum — including 15th-century manuscripts, croziers, a richly decorated gradual, liturgical vestments and embroidery, and religious sculpture.
• The Gothic cellar and the nuns' chapel.
• The chaplain's house of 1404, remodelled in 1635 and now the presbytery, plus a granary and sections of the convent wall.

Did you know?

In the first post-war years the sisters worked the farm and dried peat for fuel. Edyta Samuk was elected in 1960 as the twelfth abbess in the abbey's history. Until 1996 the nuns prayed in the choir in summer and in a tiny oratory in the attic in winter; only then was a new chapel consecrated. In 2016–2019 the complex underwent a thorough "Renovation of the Century". Some of the historic collection can also be viewed online in the Baltic Digital Library.

Tripto tips

The abbey is at ul. Klasztorna 1 in Żarnowiec (Krokowa municipality). According to the sisters, only in the summer season is the Treasury open without booking, Tuesday to Saturday from 16:00 to 17:30, except on a few feast days. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays and during Advent and Lent. Larger groups should arrange a date in advance by phone or email so the visit does not clash with prayers and services. Some rooms, the cloister garth garden and the orchard remain closed because of the enclosure. In summer a small shop sells the sisters' products — biscuits, ointments and hand-painted candles. Allow about an hour for the church, cloisters and Treasury.