Complex of the Former Evangelical Care Centre “Ostoja Pokoju” in Bytom

Ostoja Pokoju (“Haven of Peace”) is a complex of buildings in Miechowice, a district of Bytom, founded in the 19th century as an Evangelical care institution. A care home, a church, a hospital and children's homes were built here. Its creator was Eva von Tiele-Winckler, known as Mother Eva. To this day the site houses an Evangelical care home, a parish church and a museum devoted to the founder.

Mother Eva and the beginnings of the institution

Eva von Tiele Winckler was born in 1866 as the daughter of Valeska and Hubert. At the age of twenty she organised help for the poor in her father's palace in Miechowice: an outpatient clinic, a sewing room for girls and a canteen. Her father saw her commitment to caring for the sick and in 1888 gave her for Christmas the design of a care home. The building was opened in 1890 and named “Ostoja Pokoju”. The whole institution took its name from this.

After her mother's death Eva received an inheritance that allowed her to expand the institution. In 1893 a hospital and a home for small children were built, and in 1896-1898 a church, a mill, a bakery and greenhouses, and a small wooden house in which Mother Eva lived until her death. At the end of her life the complex numbered 28 buildings.

How the institution worked

Adults and children were brought up here in small groups called “Families”. The institution also ran rehabilitation activities, courses and vocational training, and published its own periodical. The educational methods used at Ostoja Pokoju served as a model for the next forty children's homes founded by Mother Eva. The institution operated until the Second World War. In 1945 it was taken over by the Evangelical-Augsburg parish in Bytom, and in 1950 it came under state administration. The parish regained part of the buildings in 1990.

What has survived to this day

Most of the buildings were destroyed by mining damage, and several houses were demolished in 1988. Entered in the heritage register are, among others:

• the “Ostoja Pokoju” care home from 1890, the first building of the complex,
• the Neo-Gothic Evangelical-Augsburg church from 1896, in which the altar with a cross and a miner and a steelworker kneeling beneath it, the carved wooden balconies and pulpit, the organ and the stained-glass windows have survived,
• the “Mother Eva” house from 1902, which houses the museum,
• the “Cisza Syjonu” house from 1905, today a venue for cultural events,
• the “Elim” house from 1916, a former holiday home for deaconesses.

By the church is a cemetery with the grave of Mother Eva from 1930. In a newly built building on the grounds of the institution there operates today the Evangelical Care Home “Ostoja Pokoju”, which continues the founder's work.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Matki Ewy 1, Bytom-Miechowice.
• A care home and a working parish operate on the site, so visit with respect for the residents and for services.
• The museum in Mother Eva's house has its own rules for visiting. Current information is given on the website ostoja-pokoju.luteranie.pl.