Through ‘The Peace Park’ we go into Limanowskiego street, turn left and reach Górny Rynek. We cross that triangular square and direct ourselves towards Garncarska street, on which rises The District Court 8 Garncarska street

The stately building of the District Court (Sąd Rejonowy; former Sąd Obwodowy) is also connected with the Emperor Franz Joseph I’s stay in Cieszyn. The Emperor visited that edifice in person on September 2nd 1906 and planted, in front of it, a commemorative tree, the so-called the ‘Emperor’s Oak Tree’ (still existing today). It was a completely new building, since it had been officially ‘opened’ on December 2nd, 1905, on the 57th anniversary of the Emperor’s ascension to the throne. The decision to build it had been made earlier because the hitherto existing rooms of Sąd Obwodowy that had been situated in the Town Hall in Cieszyn Market Square turned out to be insufficient. The authorities of the town also wished to make their offices bigger and in place of the Court – to create a new Session Room for the Town Council.

In 1901 the president of the Sąd Obwodowy, imperial court adviser, Emanuel Harbich, addressed Rudolf Lang, the building adviser from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Vienna and a well-known Cieszyn architect, Eugeniusz Fulda, and asked them to create designs for the new building. It was to be situated on Garncarska street, in front of the prison that already existed, so that the two edifices would adhere to each other. Lang and Fulda made projects of an impressive edifice, on a plan approximating a square of 58 by 55m, with an internal yard. The main façade received a Neo- Baroque decoration comprising a horizontally rusticated ground course and windows topped with a solid head stone. The windows of the first and second floors in classicist frames with keystones were placed between vertical rusticated pilaster-strips, which gave the building a heavy and solid character. The main ornament of the façade is a triaxial projection in the middle, with the entrance door with an axe and a bunch of fasces in the keystone (a symbol of justice) and a discontinued fronton with sitting puttos holding other attributes of justice, i.e. scales and a sword. Above the window of the second floor there was originally the Emperor’s twoheaded eagle and the inscription ‘K.K.KREISGERICHT’– ‘Imperial District Court’. The building was covered with a tin ridge roof with lucarnes, and the middle a projection was emphasized by high mansard roof. Also the vestibule and open-newel stairs embellished with classicistic arcades, marble columns and baluster balustrade have an impressive and majestic look. This elegant entrance emphasizes the function of the building and the majesty of the law. Already at the very beginning the visitor is struck by the sight of a ‘Iustitia’ figure, larger than life size, made of white Carrara marble. It represents Temida, the Goddess of Justice, with a sword and an open book in her hands. Her face, with a bandage over her eyes, a symbol of ‘blind justice’, was brought out from semi-darkness by the light reflected by a cleverly placed mirror. That sculpture, like that of putto, was chiseled by Ernest Hegenbarth, a Viennese sculptor, known for, among other things, the decoration of the facades of ‘Theater an der Wien’ and ‘Volkstheater’ in Vienna. On the right hand side of the vestibule a commemorative plaque from Swedish green granite was hung on the wall, with an inscription in German: ‘Erbaut unter der Regierung Seiner Majestät des Kaisers Franz Joseph I. 1903-1905)’. ‘(Built during the reign of His Highness Emperor Franz Joseph I. 1903- 1905)’. Today in its place there is a plaque from 1928, dedicated to dr Feliks Bocheński, the organizer of the Polish Judicature in Silesia and the first Polish president of the District Court in Cieszyn.

In the rear part of the building a kind of extension was situated where there is an elegant trial room. This two-storey (9m high), large (15 m by 9.5 m) room is embellished with arcaded windows on one of the longer walls and blind arches in rich stucco decoration corresponding to them on the remaining walls. In one of the arcades a portrait of the Emperor Franz Joseph I in coronation costume by the painter Alojzy Schwinger from Graz was placed. The room was covered with an equally rich flattened barrel vault with semicircular lunettes. High panelling, portals, the court podium and benches for the public, rising gradually are undoubtedly the embellishment of the room. The court building was erected by the Eugeniusz Fulda building firm, and both the interior works and the furnishings of the offices were carried out by Viennese and local Cieszyn firms, thus proving their high professionalism. At present in the building there is a District Court of Cieszyn which, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, carried out an overhaul, restoring the former splendour of the façades and the interiors.