University Hill in Opole

University Hill, known to locals as the Górka ("the little hill"), is the highest point of Opole's old town – 165 m above sea level, a few steps from the market square. In the Middle Ages lime was burned here; for five centuries it was home to a Dominican friary, then a hospital, and today the former friary buildings house the University of Opole. In a small area you will also find Opole's oldest Roman Catholic church and a gallery of sculpture, from Baroque figures to monuments to stars of Polish popular song.

History: from Limestone Hill to university

In the Middle Ages the hill was called Limestone Hill (Kalkberg): there was a quarry and lime kilns here, as marl and limestone lie beneath a thin layer of soil. It was also known as St Adalbert's Hill – according to legend, at the end of the 10th century St Adalbert (Wojciech) preached and baptised here, and when he ran out of water for baptism he struck the ground with his crosier and a spring gushed forth. The story was recorded by the Dominicans, who came to Opole in the 13th century. Their Gothic brick church was begun in 1399 and consecrated in 1430, and in 1739 it was remodelled in Baroque style.

In 1810–1811 the Prussian authorities dissolved the friary, and its buildings became a warehouse and part of a hospital. In 1845 Father Carl Alois Gaerth, parish priest of Holy Cross, decided to buy the friary back – officials demanded 4,035 thalers, which he raised within two years thanks to his parishioners' generosity. On 23 April 1853 St Adalbert's Hospital opened here. Father Wilhelm Porsch expanded it and in 1884 opened a neo-Gothic orphanage for 80 children next door – today's Collegium Minus.

The hospital remained on the hill until the early 1990s, when groundwater washed sand and clay out from between the marl rocks and the building cracked and threatened to collapse. The University of Opole took over the abandoned buildings in 1996. After a three-year conversion (1998–2001), Collegium Maius was formally opened on 4 October 2001.

What to see

• Church of Our Lady of Sorrows and St Adalbert "Na Górce" – Opole's oldest Roman Catholic church: Gothic, with a Baroque interior and a neo-Romanesque façade from the 1930s, when the steps from the market side were also rebuilt. Inside hangs a 17th-century painting of St Adalbert's legendary visit to Opole.
• Collegium Maius with its Baroque chapter house – now the Sala Plafonowa, vaulted and decorated with three ceiling paintings – and the Chapel of St Adalbert; the building also houses the University of Opole Museum.
• St Adalbert's Well behind the university building: a stone well-head with an openwork wrought-iron dome on the site of the legendary spring.
• Artists' Square (Skwer Artystów) – sculptures of figures including singer-songwriters and poets Agnieszka Osiecka, Czesław Niemen, Marek Grechuta, Jonasz Kofta and theatre director Jerzy Grotowski, plus the grave and statue of senator Edmund Osmańczyk. It is one of the most photographed spots in the city.
• "The Four Seasons" – Baroque statues from the workshop of Henryk Hartmann, commissioned in 1752 by the Frankenberg family for their summer residence in Biestrzykowice; they decayed for years in a park in Rogów Opolski before being restored and brought to the hill.
• a Baroque Marian column from 1682, over 4 m tall, brought from Regulice in 2004, and the Kitlitz family epitaphs of 1625 at the entrance to the Chapel of St Adalbert.

Curiosity: the first inquisitor

Peregrine of Opole came from the Opole friary – a preacher and Dominican prior in Racibórz and Wrocław who was the first inquisitor appointed for Poland. His collection of 120 sermons was written around the turn of the 14th century. On the hill stands a granite figure of a friar holding a ball, of unknown origin and possibly as old as the 14th century, which has been nicknamed Peregrine.

Tripto tip

The shortest way up the Górka is by the steps from the market side; you can also walk up from Plac Kopernika, where the church stands. The hill is open access, and 30–45 minutes is enough for a walk round the sculptures. Visit the church outside Mass times, and see the interiors of Collegium Maius when visiting the University of Opole Museum.