Sacred place · second half of the 14th century; later alterations
Castle Chapel of St Hedwig
A former collegiate church and Piast burial place, with a Gothic chancel and a Baroque western section.
Content language
Duke Louis I founded the collegiate church dedicated to St Hedwig in the second half of the fourteenth century. It became a ducal burial place: 43 members of the Piast dynasty were buried here.
The eastern chancel survives from the Gothic church. It has a three-sided end, brick walls on a stone base and buttresses. The western section of the chapel is Baroque, with a single bay and an apse. During the Renaissance expansion of the residence, the church nave was incorporated into the new castle wing, while the altered church continued to serve as a ducal burial place.
The Prussian bombardment of Brzeg in 1741 also damaged the church. Sarcophagi from the ducal burial place in Brzeg were transferred to the museum display “Memoriae Piastorum Principum Silesiae”. St Hedwig, the church's patron saint, was also the patron saint of the Silesian Piasts.
Question 1 of 2
Who founded the medieval collegiate church of St Hedwig?
- Location
- Adjoins the castle complex next to the gate portal · Piast Castle of the Silesian Dukes in Brzeg · Castle chapel
- Author or origin
- Muzeum Piastów Śląskich w Brzegu
- Reference
- PKT-ZPS-04
- castle-chapel
- st-hedwig
- dukes-of-brzeg-legnica