Church of St George in Cieszyn

A Gothic brick church on Liburnia Street in Cieszyn, built around the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries as the chapel of an almshouse and a hospital church. It stands outside the former medieval town walls, in the Frysztat Suburb.

Hospital, chapel, church

Sources date the construction differently (1327-1404 or the 15th century); the foundation of Duke Casimir I of Cieszyn is indicated by the golden eagle on a blue background in the chancel. Nearby lay a cemetery from 1472 and the first Cieszyn hospital for the sick and the poor. In 1442 the church became a branch of the Church of St Mary Magdalene, and in 1653 it was consecrated again. The west tower was added in 1804-1805. When the almshouse next to the church burned down in 1882, the church ceased to serve as a hospital. In May 1945 the blowing up of a nearby bridge by the retreating German forces destroyed the stained glass, damaged the roof and cracked the vault; reconstruction lasted from 1950 to 1953.

Architecture

The single-nave building has a nave of nearly square plan and a one-bay chancel closed on three sides. The chancel is covered by a cross-rib vault, and in its keystone is a shield with the Piast emblem. Gothic pointed-arched portals have survived: to the sacristy and to the nave from the south. During work in 2013-2014 conservators discovered Gothic wall paintings under the plaster, the most important of them, the scene of the Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand, on the north wall of the nave.

Furnishings and the cemetery

In the chancel hangs the 17th-century epitaph of Anna Heinel, wife of the Cieszyn copperplate engraver Galen Heinel. By the entrance stands a figure of St John of Nepomuk. Behind the church there was a cemetery until 1901; a few gravestones remain from it, and among those buried there were Karol Miarka and Paweł Stalmach.

Nearby

The church lies a few hundred metres from the market square. Nearby are the Piast Tower, the Rotunda of St Nicholas and the Printing Museum.

Practical information

• Address: Liburnia 1, Cieszyn.
• This is an active church, so access to the interior is arranged with the parish.