page_title: Silesian architecture
section_title: Baroque (middle 17th – second half 18th century)
hierarchical_section_title: Silesian architecture / Baroque (middle 17th – second half 18th century)
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Gmina ewangelicka w Przemkowie (kościół, plebania i szkoła) ok. 1750. Rys. F. B. Werner, Topografia oder Prodromus Delineati Silesiae Ducatus, tom V, s. 250.
context_page_description: Silesian architecture is the name given to the constructions made in Silesia throughout time, and those by Silesian architects worldwide. The name is also applied to buildings made within its geographical limits before the constitution of Silesia as a duchy or before this name was given to those territories, and largely depends on the historical moment. Due to historic, geographic and generational diversity, Silesian architecture has known a host of influences.
context_section_description: The beginning and the end of the Baroque were marked by two wars, the Thirty Years' War and the Seven Years' War. The triumph of the Baroque architecture in Silesia was closely connected to the rise of the House of Habsburg and the Counter-Reformation, whereas its decline was marked by the import of Classicism by Prussia, the new owner of Silesia after the Seven Years' War. The religious antagonism of Protestantism and Catholicism led to a sharp contrast of a conservative Protestant Baroque which was in the defence and a vanguard and rousing Catholic Baroque which was in the offensive. The ban to build Protestant churches and the saturation of the region with secular architecture resulted in a decline of building projects. As a consequence most Baroque palaces of the 17th and 18th century were alterations of existing structures.
  The destruction of the secular courtly culture by the new Polish owners after 1945 led to a widespread deterioration of palaces in Silesia, and today's remaining palaces and holdovers in museums give only a distorted impression of the Baroque era in Silesia.
  Important patrons of the Baroque architecture were two bishops from Breslau: Frederick of Hesse-Darmstadt and Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg. During their 50-year incumbency both initiated numerous artistic projects and supported a large array of artists. Cistercian monasteries with their large possession acted as important intellectual and artistic centers, and Cistercian abbots used the arts as an instrument to manifest their prince-like status. They created the conditions for a collaboration of the two workshops of Michael Willmann and Matthias Steinl, which was of pan-European importance. The Jesuits as the main supporters of the imperial Counter-Reformation enriched mainly the civic centers with their buildings, much to the aversion of the Protestant society. They were responsible for the spread of basilicas modeled after Il Gisu, stylistic vocabulary of the Bohemian Dientzenhofer family and the baroque theatricalism found for instance at Leopoldina university in Breslau. Artistically very active were also the Premonstratensians, Augustinians, Franciscans and the Benedictines, the latter being responsible for the church at Wahlstatt (Legnickie Pole) near Liegnitz, an outstanding architectural monument and one of the most famous symbols of the triumph of the church against nonbelievers.
  The privileged higher Catholic nobility, often immigrated, at that time laid the base for large possessions, whereas the Protestant bourgeoisie lost its role as a patron of the architecture and compensated this loss with outstanding achievents in literature, music and science.
  Characteristic for the baroque era in Silesia was the glorification of the died out Silesian Piasts and its successors, the Habsburgs. The mother of the last ruling duke of the Silesian Piasts, princess Louise of Anhalt-Dessau, built a Piast mausoleum in Liegnitz commemorating the extinct dynasty, which shows a unique program by poet Daniel Casper von Lohenstein. The Cistercians regarded themselves as keepers of the Piastic legacy and erected commemorating programs in Leubus and Grüssau (Lubiąż and Krzeszów Abbeys), but also rendered homage to the Habsburgs at the university of Breslau, in Leubus and in Lobris (Luboradz).
  The early period of the baroque era (1640–80) was marked by the activity of Italian masters, which after the Thirty Years' War filled the gaps in the entire Holy Roman Empire. St. Matthias in Breslau (1654) and Cistercian churches like Grüssau (1670) were first altered, later it affected all churches. The first remodeled palaces (all around 1640) were the residences in Zülz (Biała Prudnicka), Żyrowa, Oberglogau (Głogówek), Palais Heberstein in Grafenort (Gorzanów) by Carlo Lurago (1653–57) and the palace in Proskau (Prószków) by G. Seregni between 1677-83. The palace in Sagan, started by Albrecht von Wallenstein and later in possession of the von Lobkowicz family, was modeled after Bohemian standards. The Jesuit seminar in Neisse (1656–58) was built by Melchior Wern
caption: Modest Protestant church in Primkenau (Polish: Przemków), drawn by Friedrich Bernhard Werner, church not preserved
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