Lipnik Manor in Bielsko-Biała

Lipnik Manor, also known as the Bielsko castle, stands at ul. Żywiecka 20 in the Biała Krakowska district. Today it is a working convent of the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Love, so it is seen from the outside.

From the starosts' castle to a palace

From 1499 to 1789 Lipnik was the seat of a non-castle starosty. In 1596 the starost Piotr Komorowski built a small castle here on the site of the lower farmstead, serving as a residence and for defence. In the first half of the 19th century the owner became Archduke Albrecht Habsburg, the penultimate Duke of Cieszyn. He commissioned a late Neoclassical rebuilding and the laying out of a park, and this rebuilding obscured the original form of the building.

The order and the school

In 1885 Albrecht first leased and then donated the property to the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Love, founded in Vienna in 1868. It was the congregation's first house in the Polish lands. In 1896, to a design by Emanuel Rost junior, a storey was added to the building and the chapel of St Hildegard was built on the south side. The sisters ran an educational institution for girls here, from 1906 a grammar school with a teacher training college, and in 1909 they built a separate school building on ul. Broniewskiego. After the Second World War the building housed the 2nd A. Asnyk General Secondary School.

What the manor looks like

The brick building has a rectangular plan, three storeys with an attic and a hipped roof. The centre of the façade is marked by a portal and window decoration. Together with the historic park, the manor forms a palace and park complex. Nearby, in the town centre, stands, among others, the Polish Theatre in Bielsko-Biała.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Żywiecka 20, Bielsko-Biała.
• The building is a convent in which the sisters run a care home; it is not open to visitors.
• The manor is listed in the heritage register; access to the interiors and the park is not confirmed in the sources, so it has to be checked with the congregation before a visit.