Oleśnica Mała Palace

Oleśnica Mała Palace (say "oh-lesh-NEE-tsah MAH-wah") is a Baroque residence in a quiet Lower Silesian village about 40 km southeast of Wrocław, built on the site of the first Knights Templar commandery in Silesia. The Knights Hospitaller held it for almost five centuries, and from 1814 it belonged to the Yorck von Wartenburg family — including Peter Yorck, executed for his part in the July 1944 plot against Hitler. The interiors are not regularly open, but the park, mausoleum and church make a rewarding detour.

Templars and Hospitallers

Duke Bolesław the Tall built a hunting lodge here in 1189. Around 1220–1226 Duke Henry the Bearded and his wife, St. Hedwig, gave the village to the Templars, whose knights from here fought at the Battle of Legnica in 1241 against the Mongols. After the order was dissolved in 1312, the Hospitallers (Knights of St. John) took over, receiving permission to build a castle in 1377. Damaged by the Swedes in 1642 and gutted by fire in 1706, it was rebuilt as a Baroque residence in 1706–1711 under commander von Dittrichstein.

The Yorck family and the anti-Nazi resistance

When Prussia secularized church estates in 1810, King Frederick William III gave the property in 1814 to Field Marshal Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg for his role in the wars against Napoleon. The family added a fourth wing (1815–1820), an orangery (1872) and the Sophia Tower (1904–1905). Their octagonal mausoleum of 1828–1829 was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Carl Ferdinand Langhans. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg (born 1904), co-founder of the Kreisau Circle resistance group, was hanged at Berlin's Plötzensee prison on August 8, 1944; a plaque unveiled in 2002 honors him on the palace wall.

After 1945

The Red Army arrived on January 29, 1945. The family's famous library of some 120,000 volumes, moved earlier to Cieplice (then Bad Warmbrunn), was dispersed, and much of the palace and mausoleum furnishings were destroyed. The estate was nationalized around 1947 and the palace was thoroughly renovated in 1973–1977. Its oldest surviving part is the north wing of 1593, rebuilt after the Thirty Years' War.

What to see

• The palace façades and the Sophia Tower, topped by a rare peacock-shaped weathervane.
• The Yorck mausoleum, since 1993 a chapel of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
• The Church of St. Lawrence, with a 1733 Assumption altarpiece, a Baroque statue of St. John of Nepomuk and an old pillory stone.
• The park, with a hornbeam avenue, ancient oaks, stone slabs of a medieval judges' table and the grave of the field marshal's favorite horse.

The village is on the Via Regia, a branch of the Camino de Santiago.

Visiting tips

Since 1955 the palace has housed a plant-breeding research station, so there are no regular opening hours or tickets (as of October 2026). Explore from the outside and respect the staff and residents; allow about an hour.

Getting there and is it worth it?

Driving is easiest. By train, Oława is 20–25 minutes from Wrocław Główny, then about 13 km by taxi. It is worth the trip if you are interested in the Templars, Prussian history or the German resistance — and combine it with Brzeg's Renaissance Piast Castle nearby.