Schaffgotsch Mausoleum in Kopice

Next to the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Kopice near Grodków stands the Neoclassical mausoleum of Joanna and Hans Ulrich Schaffgotsch. It is the grave of the "Silesian Cinderella" – a girl from a poor family who, at the age of six, inherited the fortune of the industrialist Karl Godulla. After years of devastation the building has been restored, and the couple's remains have returned to it.

The Silesian Cinderella

Joanna Gryzik was born on 29 April 1842 in Poremba, now a district of Zabrze. In 1846 she came to the household of Karl Godulla, known as the zinc king, where she was cared for by the servant Emilia Lukas. Godulla died on 6 July 1848, and six-year-old Joanna became the main heir to his estate. In 1858 the King of Prussia ennobled her with the name von Schomberg-Godulla, and on 15 November 1858 she married Count Hans Ulrich Schaffgotsch.

In 1859 her legal guardians bought the estates of Kopice, Chudów and Paniowy for the couple. Joanna funded schools, hospitals, orphanages and churches, and the couple had four children. She died on 21 June 1910 in the palace at Kopice and was laid to rest in the family mausoleum; her husband was buried beside her five years later.

History of the tomb

The mausoleum was built in the second half of the 19th century to a design by the Wrocław architect Carl Lüdecke, who also remodelled the palace at Kopice. The rectangular building has clinker-brick facades with stone details, a fan-shaped staircase leading to the balcony-level entrance and a portico crowned by a triangular pediment with a coat of arms. After the Second World War the tomb was looted and the coffins and remains desecrated; the remains were buried in a common grave next to the mausoleum.

Rescue work began in 2017 on the initiative of parish priest Jarosław Szeląg and Maciej Mischok, a volunteer guardian of Kopice's monuments. The remains were exhumed on 28 October 2019, and after the restoration Joanna and Hans Ulrich were laid to rest again in the renovated mausoleum.

Tripto tips

You view the mausoleum from outside beside the parish church; 15–20 minutes is enough for the site itself. Combine it with a walk to the ruins of the Schaffgotsch neo-Gothic palace and the 64-hectare landscape park designed by Wilhelm Hampel, with ten ponds and a second family burial chapel. The church next to the mausoleum was built in 1802–1822. The palace ruins can be dangerous, so do not go inside them.