This Polish Monastery Will Change How You See Your Life (Walking Tour)

In today’s walking tour, join us as we try to restore some of that youthful sense of awe, and explore Lubiaz Abbey…

A monastery in the temperate hills of Lower Silesia, Poland, dating back to 1163.

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One of The World's Most Beautiful Malls Is In Poland (Walking Tour):

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Introduction
1:19 The Beginnings of Lubiaz Abbey
2:11 The Sound of Silence In A Medieval Monastery
3:33 The Historic Importance of Silesia
5:01 The Hapsburg Reign of Silesia
6:26 The Prince's Hall of Lubiaz Abbey
8:05 Outro

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Lubiaz Abbey was founded by the Duke of Wroclaw Boleslaw I The Tall in lands restored to his inheritance by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbossa following Boleslaw I’s legendary performance during a successful military campaign.

Lack of funding and political battles caused progress on the initial building of the abbey to be slow and difficult, and it took a full 12 years for the first incarnation of The project to be completed.

This was swampy, heavily forested land… nothing like you see today, and it took time for the monastery to find its footing.

In 1200 the first Brick Gothic building in the region was built for The Abbey, and Duke Boleslaw I The Tall himself was buried here, under the high alter, a year later.

Now by the 14th century, Lubiaz Abbey had grown to become a prosperous cultural center for the whole of Central to Eastern Europe, with excess funds being used to start construction on what would be the foundations for the current structure you see here today.

It’s important to remember when we’re discussing the Silesian regions of Poland - both Lower Silesia (or Dolneslask) where we are now, and Silesia (or Slask) - these are… lands that have been fought over thousands of years.
Forgive me for using modern terms to describe this, but hopefully it will make things clearer:

Who we now call Poles, Germans, Czechs, Austrians, Catholics, Protestants, Jews - they’ve all lived in this area extensively over hundreds, even more than a thousand years.

This is truly hallowed ground.

Moving on, in the 17th Century, these lands were being held in what is historically called “Austrian Silesia”, and in the fantastically elaborate Baroque architectural style of the Habsburg monarchy, the Abbey was rebuilt in an gilded fashion, which further helps explain some of the way it appears to us today.

There’s the summer refectory, designed in 1690 to 1691 by Michael Willman with Frescos of the greek God of wine, Dionysus, didn’t we mention the Hapsburgs were ornate?

The most well known and largest city in Lower Silesia or Dolneslask, Wroclaw, is infused with the architectural remnants of the Hapsburg era as well.

Originally constructed between 1734 and 1738, the Prince’s Hall is the largest and most important room of the Abbey, and has been heralded as far back at the 19th century, once being called “The Most important ballroom in all of Silesia”…

What I found fascinating about the artwork and sculptures of the room is the combination of historical epochs depicted side by side.

In the painting, we glorifications of Poland’s first documented ruling dynasty, the Piasts, who ruled in the 10th century…

Near depictions of Hapsburg rulers like the 16th century’s Maria Theresa, near pre-Socratic Greek characters such as Chronos.

The figures you see depicted in the sculptures are Hapsburg rulers, but additionally Catholic icons are shown as well within the room.

We’ve just started this channel, our hope is to continue to refine the “immersive” experience of these videos…

We’ll be experimenting a little bit in the future, some with music, some without…

But let us know in the comments what you’d like to see more of, and if you enjoyed, please be sure to hit the like button, since it helps us in the algorithm.

Thank you for your time, and we’ll see you on the next walking tour.