1. THE HISTORICAL BUILDINGS OF WARMBRUNN/CIEPLICE
THE HISTORICAL BUILDINGS OF WARMBRUNN/CIEPLICE
1
The Church of St. John The Baptist
It is possible that in place of the modern Church of St. John the Baptist stood a wooden chapel as far back as the 12th century. The first mention of the church’s existence comes from 1318. Around the end of the 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century, the chapel was expanded and transformed to match the gothic style of architecture. The church burnt down in the 16th century and was subsequently rebuilt and expanded. After the great fire of 1711, the church was dismantled and between 1712 and 1714 a new late Baroque style church, designed by the architect Kasper Jentsch of Hirschberg, was built in its place.
2
The Abbey of the Cieplice Monastery
The monastery in Cieplice, a part of the abbey under the Prepositura of the Krzeszów monastery, started the construction of the west wing during the second half of the 16th century. Then, in the latter half of the 17th century, the east, north, and the south wings were built and as a result, the monastery gained an unequal quadrilateral shape with an inner garden. After the secularization of the Silesian monasteries in 1810, the building was acquired by Leopold Gotthard Schaffgotsch 1812, who gave a section of the old monastery to the local parish. In his part of the building, count Schaffgotsch has transferred the Major Schaffgotsch Library from his palace in Sobieszów.
3
The Evangelical Church
The first evangelical church in Cieplice was small and made out of wood in 1624. In 1742, the Prussian king, Frederick II the Great gave the permission to expand the small temple. The walled church was built between 1774 and 1777 while the inner furnishings were finished around 1780.
4
The Schaffgotsch Palace/Castle
The first palace of the Warmbrunn’s (Cieplice’s) owners was a Renaissance structure built between 1550 and 1560. After the fire of 1777, the Schaffgotsch family quarters were disassembled. Between 1784 and 1788 a new Baroque style palace, designed by Johann Georg Rudolf from Oppeln (Opole), was built.
5
The Resort Park Gallery
The Gallery, designed by one Karl Gottfried Geissler, was built between 1797 and 1800, south of the Palace Park, adjacent to the poplar tree alley. It served as a concert hall and a place to serve food and beverages.
6,7
The Baths
The baths were built over the hot springs which, according to the legend, were discovered along with the their healing properties by the end of the 12th century.
The older one, the Vicarage Bath (also known as the Monastic Bath, the Abbey Bath, the Small Bath, the Main Spring, or the Stony Spring), in its wooden form has existed since the 13th century. It was expanded in 1599 with stone. Between 1662 and 1664, abbot Bernhard Rosa rebuilt the old bath in the architectural style of Baroque. The bath was rebuilt once again, between 1823 and 1824, and renamed to the Leopold’s Bath.
The more contemporary bath, the Count’s Bath (also known as the Wooden Bath, the Grand Bath, the Wooden Spring, or the Poor Man’s Spring) was built in the 16th century, entirely out of wood. In 1627, by the order of Hans Ulrich Schaffgotsch, the bath was dismantled and rebuilt with stone.
Both baths were dismantled and replaced by the new Bathhouse in 1931.