Provincial Sejm (parliament) and Provincial Court of Justice
At the corner of the Dominican Square and Sejmowa stree t there is a former Provincial Sejm (parliament) and Provincial Court of Justice 3 Dominican Square
At the beginning the judicial power was executed by the Prince himself with the help of the Prince’s court clerks nominated and selected from the outstanding representatives of the gentry. It was a socalled The Court’s Court of Justice. In the 15th century the Prince let the gentry participate in his judicial power. At the end of the 15th century he indicated the legal rules according to which a newly formed court, comprising the representatives of landowning noblemen, was supposed to function. These were the beginnings of a so-called Provincial Court of Justice (Landtag) and also the Provincial Sejm (parliament) because the congress of landowning noblemen for the provincial Sejm debates and the proceedings of the provincial Court of Justice took place at the same time. Both the Court and the Sejm consisted of the owners of free land, i.e. representatives of the nobility and delegates from the Cieszyn town, i.e. the owner of the suburban villages. In 1572 Prince Wacław III Adam granted the gentry and the knights a privilege that stated that these classes of the Duchy can only be brought to trial by the Provincial Court of Justice. He also confirmed all their privileges concerning the land ownership. The functioning of the provincial law was established by ‘Porządek krajowy Księstwa Cieszynskiego’ (‘The national order of the Duchy of Cieszyn’), issued by that Prince and based on case-law that had been operating for a long time. The collection of these acts was used in the Duchy for more than 200 years, the last copy of the code dates back to 1796.
The Provincial Court of Justice sat under the chairmanship of the Prince. However, in the 16th century the Marshal took the chair in the Prince’s absence. He held the highest office in the Duchy and he was selected from the gentry and nominated by the Prince. From their body the noblemen chose, and the Prince nominated, at least 9 assessors to help the Marshal. After the extinction of the Piast dynasty, after 1654, it was a Starosta, being a representative of Cieszyn Dukes from the Habsburg dynasty, who was at the head of the Court. The meetings were held twice a year – on the Monday preceding the Pentecost (the 50th day after Easter) and the Monday before St. Katarzyna’s, i.e. November 25th. On the second day of the judicial session, before noon, it was customary for the Provincial Sejm to debate. Altogether The Court Session lasted for 6 days. At the beginning they met in the castle, in the Prince’s seat, in the so-called ‘Wielka Tafelstube’ (Grand Table Room). At the beginning of the 16th century the proceedings were moved to the cloister in the monastery of the Dominican Friars and from the end of that century – to another building, erected especially for that purpose and existing until today, at the corner of Dominican Square and Sejmowa street. The first mention of ‘Soudnicze Zemskie’ comes from 1596 and all we know is that its walls were embellished with the painted coats of arms of the Court’s judges. In 1742 the building was remodelled and the Baroque character given to it. After the town fire in 1789, in which the Court also got burnt down, it was rebuilt by the duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen – as a twostorey building covered with a mansard roof. On the ground floor a large debating room was located, covered with an arched vault, whereas on the first floor there were offices and archives of the Court and Sejm. The session room was embellished with 34 painted coats of arms of the noble members of the Court. Besides, there were also arms of the Cieszyn town, coats of arms of Charles, a Cieszyn duke, and a banner that Cieszyn noblemen got from the Emperor Leopold II in 1662 for defending the borders of the Duchy during the battles with Turks. The first two are in Muzeum Beskyd in the castle in Frýdek-Mistek, whereas the banner is part of the Cieszyn museum collection.
The setting of the Court sessions was solemn in character and the whole etiquette was controlled by precise rules that reflected the hierarchy of the positions that the noblemen held. At a set time all the male representatives of the Cieszyn gentry waited for the Prince or his deputy in the court room. Their presence was obligatory; for their absence they were punished with high fines. The arrival of the Prince/Duke or his deputy – the national Marshal and then Starosta, was announced by means of music. Before him a naked sword was carried – as a symbol of the execution of justice. It was not permitted to bring a weapon to the court room; only the duke and the judges were allowed to have it with them. Together with the judges their guards, i.e. 4 Wallachian haiduks, entered. They (the haiduks) were entrusted with the security of the judges and they ensured peaceful debates, whereas the entrance was guarded by two armed lifeguardsmen. The seats behind the judges’ table were taken according to an order precisely stated. In the central place the Chairman of the Court sat, on his right hand side - the Chancellor and behind the Chancellor – members of the gentry, whereas on the left hand side sat the judges and behind them – the representatives of the knighthood had their seats. Cieszyn Provincial law stated the order of cases to be considered. The first issues to judge were controversial issues, then those concerning widows and orphans, then, in turn, matters about debts and, at the end – matters concerning offence to honour and criminal cases. All the cases and sentences were recorded by the Chancellor in the Books of the Provincial Court. The last book that we know comes from 1565. The form of testifying was extremely interesting; it reflected the feudal division of the Duchy’s society. Knights and gentry testified before the court in person.
The testimonies of townspeople and peasants from the court of first instance were presented in a written form, except for matters concerning border litigations. Then, ‘according to the old custom’, townspeople testified while kneeling down, without arms, bare-headed and with a raised finger. On the other hand, peasants did it while stripped to the shirt; they knelt, barefoot, in a ditch that was an ell deep with a piece of turf on their head. In order to elicit the testimony tortures were allowed; however, mainly in the case of robbers and criminals. During the Court sessions the Duke received the knights with copious dinner in the castle. The vessels for that feast were provided at first by the guild of pot makers, then it was the townspeople who lent tin pots. That custom died out in 1711 when the judges received a money reward, depending on the post they held. On the 13th of May, 1779, seven representatives of European countries signed, with due ceremony in the Court building, the so-called Cieszyn Peace Treaty that ended the ‘Bavarian War of Succession’ between Austria and Prussia.
Cieszyn Provincial Court ceased to function after the events of the Spring of Nations. The Emperor’s order of the 4th of March 1849 abolished all forms of villein service and serfdom by introducing the principle of equality for all the people in the face of the law. In place of class Provincial Court a District Court (Bezirksgericht) and the National Court (Kreisgericht) were set up in Cieszyn.
The Provincial Court (also called Provincial Sejm) building was the property of successive Cieszyn dukes until 1918 and, although the local gentry did not gather there any more, it became a symbol of the former feudal system of Cieszyn Silesia, based on the duke’s authority and the gentry that were subordinated to him.
Photographs: Dominik Dubiel, Paweł Halama, Daniel Hryciuk, Magdalena Jańczuk, Renata Karpińska, Mariusz Makowski, Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic, Anna Szostok-Fedrizzi, Henryk Tesarczyk
Translation from Polish: Lucyna Krzanowska and John Whitewood
Reproductions of exhibits, documents and photographs from the collections of:
- Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn,
- Cieszyn Historical Library,
- Cieszyn Branch of the State Archive in Katowice,
- Cieszyn Town Council,
- Museum of Beskidy in Frýdek-Mistek,
- private collection of Mariusz Makowski
- H. Wawreczka, J. Spyra, M. Makowski, ‘Cieszyn i Czeski Cieszyn na starych widokówkach i fotografiach’, WART, Nebory 1999