The Old Archdukal Castle Brewery
At the northern w ing of the Hunting Palace, behind the new Orangery, there are stairs and a lift by which one can get to the car park at Dojazdowa street from which a view of the old Archdukal Castle Brewery opens out The Old Archdukal Castle Brewery 2 Dojazdowa street
The first castle brewery was erected in 1659 near the Gothic Piast Tower by the board of the Habsburg Komora Cieszyńska. It was six years after the death of Elisabeth Lucretia.
In 1846 the brewery was transferred to a new place i.e. the foundations of the northern fortifications because of the creation, on the Castle Hill, of a romantic park. It was erected on commission by Archduke Charles Ludwig, according to a design by Józef Kornhäusel. It was designed as a four winged, rectangular building with a yard in the middle. The corners and the gate were embellished with pseudo rustication, which gave the building a fortified character. It was surrounded by a park with a garden drawing room, which became a favourite place for Cieszyn people to stroll. Soon it gained the opinion as ‘one of the most splendid seats for beer production in the whole of Moravia and Austrian Silesia.’
The brewery was equipped with the most modern appliances with steam drive and the equally innovative Bollinger cooling system. Under the brewery and the Castle Hill they drilled large cellars, some of them two-storey, to store beer. All this made it possible for the brewery to produce a by no means trivial amount of beer, i.e. about 34.000 hectolitres a year (at that time, the Archdukal brewery in Żywiec produced about 18.000 hectolitres). Today Bracki Castle Brewery in Cieszyn (a limited liability company) continues in the brewing business and produces the well-known ‘Brackie’ beer whose name refers to the legend about the foundation of Cieszyn by three brothers.
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