The Gothic cloisters

The Gothic cloisters were founded in the 15th century by King Casimir IV Jagiellon and Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki. They were rebuilt after the monastery fire of 1459. The walks, about 4 metres wide, surround the garth, a small inner courtyard. In 1491 Abbot Maciej of Pyzdry added a north infirmary wing to the monastery.

The cross vaults have brick ribs and stone keystones carved with coats of arms, among them Topór, Prus, Odrowąż and Jastrzębiec. The cloisters hold a black marble altar dedicated to deceased Benedictines, an epitaph of Abbot Karski by the entrance, and a marble plaque marking the consecration of the church in 1806. A modern epitaph commemorates Oblates killed during the Second World War.

The walls bear the marks of a difficult history. In 1882 the prison authorities destroyed two bays of the vaulting, and in September 1939 German bombs hit the southern section. The wing was rebuilt in 1946, and in 1964-1967 the windows received stained glass made of antique glass. Conservation work uncovered fragments of a 12th-century Romanesque wall, and missing keystones were replaced with new ones bearing the emblems of Kościuszko and the Oblates.