The first Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene
The original parish church in Cieszyn, which was located where the theatre stands today, was destroyed by the great fire of Cieszyn in 1789. The date of its foundation is not known. Some legends have it that the church was consecrated by Adalbert, archbishop of Magdeburg in 984, others that the church was founded by a Silesian castellan Piotr Włast in 1140. The foundation of the parish church was linked in the Middle Ages to the development of Cieszyn as a town with its centre located on the site of the present Theatre Square. However, it is possible that the town’s most important buildings were originally located closer to the castle. A hypothesis claiming that the first parish church was founded in a different place has also been put forward. In surviving documents the Cieszyn parish church was first mentioned as late as in the second half of the 13th century (1265), but the church must have existed before that date. Its patron saint then was already St. Mary Magdalene, a supposed fragment of whose finger was kept in the church as a relic. In 1332 the Cieszyn parish priest Paweł, a curate Zygfryd and a teacher, Arnold, are mentioned. The parish church was wooden and had several chapels; one of them dedicated to All Saints. Clergymen supported themselves by donations received from the Cieszyn Princes and townspeople, which were usually connected with commissions of new altarpieces. There were at least nine altarpieces, which suggests the church must have been sizeable. Some religious confraternities were established in the church, among them the Corpus Christi Confraternity.
In 1496 during the rule of Prince Casimir II and the economic growth of Cieszyn the town authorities set about building a new stone and brick church. It was built by Peter Bruck of Olomouc. The building was completed not later than 1519 when the church was fitted with an organ and a bell, both donated by the Prince. The church was 34 metres long, it had a nave with a side porch and a single-bayed presbytery supported from the outside by buttresses, and a tower. The presbytery was lit by four pointed arched windows. The three-bayed nave was 24.5 metres wide and 19 metres long, its central part reaching a height of 15 metres. It could hold around 1300 people. The nave was accessed by two entrances; the main west doorway with a Gothic portal situated on the axis of the church, and the side doorway from the south. A graveyard adjoined the church. Close by there was a freestanding wooden belfry. The parish church is depicted on numerous panoramas of Cieszyn dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The original interior of the new stone and brick church was Late Gothic. Some of the altarpieces from the old church were transferred to the new one. New altarpieces including one dedicated to St. Catherine and another to the Holy Cross were founded by devout townspeople. When Lutheranism became the dominant religion of the Cieszyn Duchy the church was taken over by the Lutherans and Cieszyn pastors were supported by Cieszyn Town Council. After the fire of 1552 the belfry was rebuilt and given new bells founded by Lutheran townspeople and the Prince. After 1609 Prince Adam Wenceslas confiscated the church and appointed Maciej Rudzki as parish priest. Lutherans tried to recover the parish church several times and managed to do so in 1619, 1622 and 1626, but only for short periods.
Finally the parish church was taken over by Catholics during the times of Princess Elizabeth Lucretia. Gradually, new décor in the spirit of the Counter Reformation was introduced to the church which was complemented by the foundation of a new high altar in 1666. The altarpiece was carved by Ferdinand Zacharias Schwabenheim, a sculptor from Lusitia. Comprising of several levels it was an example of ornate Baroque woodcarving, one of the most magnificent in Upper Silesia. It was decorated by a representation of the Immaculate Conception – with Mary as Apocalyptical Virgin Clothed with the Sun. Further foundations resulted in the Gothic church gaining a fully Baroque décor. The walls and pillars were decorated with epitaphs, paintings and over a dozen guild banners of various sizes. A gallery housed numerous musical instruments. A clock was installed in the tower. At the beginning of the 18th century the incumbent parish priest and Cieszyn dean Heinrich Samuel Wolf of Brzeźno built a new chapel adjoining the church and presbytery. His successors limited themselves to renovations and repairs. For example after the fire of 1720 the belfry underwent a renovation and new bells were ordered. The church remained largely unchanged until 6th May 1789 when it was completely destroyed by fire, along with the whole town. The town authorities decided against rebuilding it and the seat of the parish as well as the dedication were transferred to the former Dominican church. Little survived from the original parish church; there is a wooden tabernacle in the Cieszyn museum; some parts of the altarpiece are now in the church in Zamarski; a font was moved to Piotrowice near Zebrzydowice. Antique chalices, among them the oldest and most precious one dating from 1494, paintings, portraits of parish priests and parish registers were all transferred to the new parish church. Some tombstones from the graveyard were relocated to the graveyard of the Holy Trinity church.
Opposite the Adam Mickiewicz Theatre is the Książnica Cieszyńska (Cieszyn Historical Library), the most important academic library in Cieszyn Silesia. Its main building is house belonging to Baron Bludowski built in 1719 on the site of an older house of a Cieszyn burgher, Wacław Pilutek, which in turn used to house the princely mint during the rule of the last Piast Princess, Elizabeth Lucretia. A mint master called Fritto appeared in Cieszyn around 1290 at the court of Prince Mesco I. Whether he actually minted any coins or not remains unknown since the oldest surviving coinage dates from the times of Prince Premislaus I Noszak. The town authorities were granted the right to mint for a period of time in the 15th century. From the end of the 15th century the Cieszyn princes began minting their own coins again, and to that end employed skilled mint masters. At that time counterfeiting was punishable by the death penalt.
Mint masters usually carried out their work in the cellars of their own houses, and it was only after 1643 that the mint gained a permanent location. There are numerous archive records dating from the Piast times in the collection of Cieszyn Historical Library, also manuscripts and old prints connected with the Piasts. One of the most valuable manuscripts is a miniature prayer book measuring 4 cm by 5 cm written on parchment in Germany in the 15th century. In consists of 140 leaves, 5 of which are illuminated with miniatures of scenes from the life of Christ. According to tradition the prayer book belonged to the last Cieszyn Princess Elizabeth Lucretia. Among numerous old prints dating from the Piast period the oldest chronicle of the Cieszyn Duchy is of particular interest. Dating from 1588, it was published in German in Freiberg in Meissen. Its author, Eleazar Tilisch (1560-1612), was for six years a steward, and then secretary to Prince Adam Wenceslas, and his chronicle was based on documents from the princely archives. Some other of the oldest Cieszyn prints were owned or written by people linked with the princely court. Many records dating from the Piast epoch are kept in the collection of the National Archives in Cieszyn located in the same building as the historical library. Passing the Adam Mickiewicz Theatre on the left along the narrow ul. A. Fredry we approach the Old Market (Stary Targ), the oldest market place in Cieszyn. For over 150 years it was adorned with a statue of the Virgin and Child set on a high plinth in 1844. Cieszyn market traders who sold vegetables, fruit and flowers at the foot of the statue painted the sculpture in white and blue oil paints every few years in order to keep it looking beautiful. As a result historians and art historians regarded the sculpture as a worthless 19th century plaster statue whichwas undeserving of their attention. It was only handed over to restorers in 2000 who after removing 33 layers of oil paint discovered the original stone statue underneath dating from the second half of the 14th century and originating from the workshop of the most famous sculptor of that period, Peter Parler. What is more, the statue is in very good condition since the thick layer of oil paint protected the stone from the destructive effects of atmospheric pollution. Today the Cieszyn Madonna, already famous in Europe, is exhibited in the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, and a copy has been placed on the plinth in the Old Market. We head for the museum along ul. Głęboka. However, on the way we approach the Square of the Holy Cross (Plac Św. Krzyża) and the entrance to the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene.