Górka Palace (Górka Castle) in Sobótka

The Neo-Renaissance "castle" in Sobótka-Górka, at the foot of Mount Ślęża, hides something far older than its 19th-century turrets: the medieval chapel and church of a former monastery of the Canons Regular of St Augustine. It is one of the oldest church sites in Lower Silesia, linked to the medieval magnate Piotr Włostowic and to the kidnapping of a Bishop of Wrocław in the 13th century. The palace stands in the western part of Sobótka, on the edge of the Ślęża Landscape Park.

History: from monastery to castle

The Canons Regular, brought to Sobótka in the 12th century by Piotr Włostowic, founded their first house here; as early as 1149 the main community moved to the Sand Island in Wrocław, leaving a provostry at Górka. The village appears in documents of Duke Henry the Bearded from 1204 and 1208, and in 1250 Pope Innocent IV mentions the consecration of a new church. In 1256 Duke Bolesław the Bald (known as Rogatka) raided Górka and imprisoned Bishop Thomas I of Wrocław.

The provostry was destroyed by the Hussites in 1428 and 1435. In 1524–1553 a residential wing with a tower was added to the chapel, and in 1589 the church was reconsecrated. After further destruction in the Thirty Years' War and the secularisation of church property in Prussia in 1810, the buildings (except the church) were bought in 1812 by Ernst von Lüttwitz. In 1885 the estate was acquired by Eugen von Kulmiz, who in 1886–1891 had it rebuilt as a Neo-Renaissance castle to designs by the Wrocław architect Wilhelm Rhenius.

What to see

• The south front – a façade of rough-split granite with some brick, partly rendered.
• The former 15th-century church in the eastern part of the complex, the tower from 1524–1553 in the middle and a former farm building from around 1558 to the west.
• Two stone lions by the entrance – historic granite sculptures already recorded before 1900.
• Ancillary buildings: a gatehouse, an outbuilding, a coach house, a former brewery from the mid-19th century and a park.

Interesting facts

In 1320 Abbot Henryk Calvus locked his predecessor, Abbot Philip, in the church together with a chaplain – Górka was rarely a quiet place. Archaeological work carried out since 2002 uncovered the foundations of a tower and walls near the medieval chapel, suggesting there may also have been a castle here in the Middle Ages. Wall paintings were discovered on the church vault, and the interior holds the epitaph of Provost Valentin Aeschius, who extended the monastery in the 16th century. In 1932 the parish moved to a new church and the old one became a storehouse.

Tripto tip

Around the turn of the 21st century it housed a hotel and restaurant, and renovation work began in 2013. We could not confirm whether the interior can currently be visited, so be prepared to view the building from outside, from the public road. Twenty to thirty minutes is enough. The visit combines easily with a hike up Mount Ślęża and the Ślęża Museum in the centre of Sobótka, housed in a former Augustinian hospital building from 1568.