A former Jesuit monastery in Cieszyn, linked with the collections of Leopold Szersznik and the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
The Franciscan Monastery in Cieszyn is housed in a former Jesuit building on ulica Szersznika, right next to the Baroque Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, near the Cieszyn Market Square.
The Franciscans came to Cieszyn in 1476. Around 1545 Duke Wenceslaus III Adam introduced the Reformation and handed the abandoned monastery buildings over to the town. The present building is a former Jesuit monastery, and after the suppression of the order in 1773 Father Leopold Szersznik placed his library and museum collections in it. In 1996 the Franciscans regained the entire building, and in 2005 they took over pastoral care in the neighbouring Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
The building is entered in the heritage register, and is brick and Baroque. Sources date its construction differently, to the 17th or the 18th century. Today the monastery houses a retreat house and a soup kitchen for the poor. It is a working monastery, so its interiors are not entered like a museum.
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