DOI article:
Grzęda, Mateusz: Architektura klasztoru Paulinów w Beszowej
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19092#0064
dependmg on the local circumstances and means of a given community. The case of Beszowa is
different: here there was no need to adapt new buildings to already extant ones, as it often hap-
pened with structures of the mendicants; nor any attempts were made here to raise even a single
wing of a cloister - as Cistercians who, like Paulines, struggled with fmancial shortages, would
have done. At Beszowa one can observe a thoroughly new way of thinking, wherein the cloister
is no longer understood as the architectural centrę of a medieval monastery. Because of the new
function the Beszowa house was to serve - that of a parish - and the resulting pastorał duties,
the cloister was deemed redundant and must have been rejected still at the planning stage.
The function of the cloister as a circulation path at Beszowa was in some measure taken
over by the raised covered walk connecting the two wings of the monastery at the height of the
first storey. This architectural feature appears in many Pauline monasteries in Poland, and in
all probability it was borrowed from the complex of the Canons Regular of the Lateran of the
Cracow Congregation at their church of Corpus Christi at Kazimierz in Cracow, where such
a walk was built in the second half of the fifteenth century. The complex at Beszowa is the first
instance of a Pauline monastery in which this feature was employed.
The most puzzling part of the Beszowa monastery is its older, north wing, adjacent to the
church of Sts Peter and Paul. In the now ruined wing were located the old chapter house and
library. The chapter house had the form of a two-aisled hall with vaulting supported on two pil-
lars. Małgorzata Gorzelak, the monographer of the complex, associated this space with a group
of hall churches in Bohemia dating from the last ąuarter of the fourteenth century. Of interest
here is the presence of the characteristic Parler-type vaulting shafts which were first used in the
Old Town Bridge Tower in Prague and which can also be seen in the southern part of the nave
of St Catherine's church in Cracow. It cannot be excluded that the north wing of the monastery
at Beszowa for a long time had been the only masonry building in the complex.
The west wing of the monastery has a regular, symmetrical plan, and consists of two identi-
cal spaces (the abbot's hall and refectory), each with a stellar vaulting supported by a single
pier. Between the rooms are located a porch and a staircase leading to the basement. The type
of a single-pier hall is a solution traditionally employed in monastic architecture in refectories,
chapter houses and chapels. This motif was particularly popular with Austin Friars and mendicants.
At the same time, it became a feature widespread in secular architecture which in the fifteenth
century was in the process of rapid development in Lesser Poland and Silesia. By appropriating
the accomplishments of Gothic court style, the secular architecture of this period, in terms of
innovativeness of solutions, outdid the sacred one. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that possible
models for the west wing of the monastery at Beszowa came precisely from secular buildings,
such as the palące of the Princes of Opole in 1, Nankera Street in Wrocław, built probably in the
first half of the fifteenth century, sińce its plan seems to anticipate the layout of the west wing
of the monastery at Beszowa. What is more, one of the extant halls of the palące in Wrocław is
of the single-pillar type.
Particularly striking in the west wing of the Beszowa monastery are the stellar vaults covering
the abbot's hall and refectory. So far it has been suggested (by A. Miłobędzki and M. Gorzelak)
that such a decorative solution derives from the lands of the Teutonic Order. The forms of the
vaultings at Beszowa, however, are alien to that area. A star formed by ribs is supenmposed over
domical vault with lunettes, which conseąuently does not reąuire transverse ribs. The lunettes in
Beszowa appear, just like those in Silesia, outside the outline of the four-peak stars, whereas in
the north prevailed the allegedly English tradition of applying star-shaped outline to the vaults,
but with lunettes adjacent to one another, meaning that they were placed on cross-ribbed vaults.
54
different: here there was no need to adapt new buildings to already extant ones, as it often hap-
pened with structures of the mendicants; nor any attempts were made here to raise even a single
wing of a cloister - as Cistercians who, like Paulines, struggled with fmancial shortages, would
have done. At Beszowa one can observe a thoroughly new way of thinking, wherein the cloister
is no longer understood as the architectural centrę of a medieval monastery. Because of the new
function the Beszowa house was to serve - that of a parish - and the resulting pastorał duties,
the cloister was deemed redundant and must have been rejected still at the planning stage.
The function of the cloister as a circulation path at Beszowa was in some measure taken
over by the raised covered walk connecting the two wings of the monastery at the height of the
first storey. This architectural feature appears in many Pauline monasteries in Poland, and in
all probability it was borrowed from the complex of the Canons Regular of the Lateran of the
Cracow Congregation at their church of Corpus Christi at Kazimierz in Cracow, where such
a walk was built in the second half of the fifteenth century. The complex at Beszowa is the first
instance of a Pauline monastery in which this feature was employed.
The most puzzling part of the Beszowa monastery is its older, north wing, adjacent to the
church of Sts Peter and Paul. In the now ruined wing were located the old chapter house and
library. The chapter house had the form of a two-aisled hall with vaulting supported on two pil-
lars. Małgorzata Gorzelak, the monographer of the complex, associated this space with a group
of hall churches in Bohemia dating from the last ąuarter of the fourteenth century. Of interest
here is the presence of the characteristic Parler-type vaulting shafts which were first used in the
Old Town Bridge Tower in Prague and which can also be seen in the southern part of the nave
of St Catherine's church in Cracow. It cannot be excluded that the north wing of the monastery
at Beszowa for a long time had been the only masonry building in the complex.
The west wing of the monastery has a regular, symmetrical plan, and consists of two identi-
cal spaces (the abbot's hall and refectory), each with a stellar vaulting supported by a single
pier. Between the rooms are located a porch and a staircase leading to the basement. The type
of a single-pier hall is a solution traditionally employed in monastic architecture in refectories,
chapter houses and chapels. This motif was particularly popular with Austin Friars and mendicants.
At the same time, it became a feature widespread in secular architecture which in the fifteenth
century was in the process of rapid development in Lesser Poland and Silesia. By appropriating
the accomplishments of Gothic court style, the secular architecture of this period, in terms of
innovativeness of solutions, outdid the sacred one. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that possible
models for the west wing of the monastery at Beszowa came precisely from secular buildings,
such as the palące of the Princes of Opole in 1, Nankera Street in Wrocław, built probably in the
first half of the fifteenth century, sińce its plan seems to anticipate the layout of the west wing
of the monastery at Beszowa. What is more, one of the extant halls of the palące in Wrocław is
of the single-pillar type.
Particularly striking in the west wing of the Beszowa monastery are the stellar vaults covering
the abbot's hall and refectory. So far it has been suggested (by A. Miłobędzki and M. Gorzelak)
that such a decorative solution derives from the lands of the Teutonic Order. The forms of the
vaultings at Beszowa, however, are alien to that area. A star formed by ribs is supenmposed over
domical vault with lunettes, which conseąuently does not reąuire transverse ribs. The lunettes in
Beszowa appear, just like those in Silesia, outside the outline of the four-peak stars, whereas in
the north prevailed the allegedly English tradition of applying star-shaped outline to the vaults,
but with lunettes adjacent to one another, meaning that they were placed on cross-ribbed vaults.
54