Duchy of Münsterberg

For centuries, the heart of the Duchy of Münsterberg was its capital, Münsterberg, known today as Ziębice. This Silesian town rose on the site of the trading village of Sambice, destroyed by Tatar incursion in 1241. Its borders were later protected by defence walls. The first magistrate of Münsterberg was knight Konrad who in 1250 received the incorporation charter from the Duke of Silesia, Henry III the White. The village of Sambice was then transformed into the town of Münsterberg, incorporated under the German law. Duke Bolko I the Strict of Świdnica built a castle in Münsterberg (between 1291 and 1301) and the town itself received a number of privileges which boosted local crafts and trade. The urban arrangement of the town, its general outline and the sites of main streets and squares, as well as defence walls and key buildings, were established in the 14th Century and, for the most part, preserved to this day. The 14th Century also saw Münsterberg rise to the position of the capital of the Piast Duchy of Münsterberg. The Duchy emerged as a result of the territorial fragmentation of Silesia related to dynastic alliances of the Silesian Piasts. It was separated from the Duchy of Świdnica under the treated of 22 November 1321. The treaty was signed by Bernard and Bolko, sons of Bolko I the Strict of Świdnica. The first lord of Münsterberg who used the title of the “Duke of Münsterberg” was Bolko who took over the Duchy in 1322.

The Duchy, which in its beginning included also Wiązów (Wansen), Kąty Wrocławskie (Kanth), Sobótka, Strzelin (Strehlen), Dzierżoniów (Reichenbach), Ząbkowice (Frankenstein), Srebrna Góra (Silberberg), Złoty Stok (Reichenstein) and Bardo (Wartha), and whose borders reached as far as Paczków, very quickly descended into debt and financial crisis caused by Bolko’s inept governing. Furthermore, the Duke of Münsterberg clashed with his mighty neighbour the Bishop of Breslau, who was also the Duke of Nysa. To cover his ever increasing expenses, Bolko took out gigantic loans and credits. As a result, in 1336 he was forced to do homage to the John the Blind, King of Bohemia. According to the terms of the homage, after the male bloodline of the Piasts of Münsterberg had died out, the Duchy of Münsterberg was supposed to become the domain of the Kings of Bohemia.

After Bolko’s death, the Duchy’s financial conditions did not improve. Bolko’s son, Nicholas the Small, who succeeded his father as the Duke of Münsterberg from 1341 to 1358, was equally wasteful and additionally had to pay off his father's debts. This forced him to sell some of the Duchy's lands and to considerably reduce its territory.

Nicholas’ successor, Duke Bolko III, who ruled the Duchy from 1358 to 1410, fared a little better on the throne. But even he had to sell some of his lands in the final years of his reign, reducing the Duchy to Münsterberg and a strip of Land between Münsterberg and Paczków.

After a brief joint rule of Bolko III’s sons, Henry and John, in 1410 the rule over the Duchy was taken by John of Münsterberg. His reign coincided with the tumultuous years of the Hussite Wars. Duke John died in 1428 in the battle of Stary Wielisław near Kłodzko, fighting the Hussite rebels. As his brother Henry died before him, John was the last of the Piasts of Münsterberg, and after his death, the Duchy became the domain of Bohemia. Hussite Wars ravaged the lands and towns of the Duchy, and stalled its economic growth for years. In many domains of the Duchy, the villages and towns never truly recovered.

In 1454, the territory of the Duchy and the County of Kłodzko, were taken over by the Bohemian House of Poděbrady, and remained in their hands until 1569. The greatest lord of Münsterberg of that period was Charles I who, on the one hand, reinforced the Duchy's military and economic strength, but on the other hand, marginalised Münsterberg in favour of the nearby Ząbkowice. Although the administrative centre of the Duchy was moved to Ząbkowice, Münsterberg remained the nominal capital and the Duchy retained its name. After the rule of the Poděbrady ended, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II of the House of Habsburg granted the Duchy a land constitution, undertaking to preserve all of its privileges.

Another catastrophe which laid waste to this corner of Europe, and the most devastating for the Land of Münsterberg since the Hussite Wars, was the Thirty Years’ War, lasting from 1618 to 1648. This bloody religious clash between the Catholic House of Habsburg and the Protestant Northern Europe for the most part took place in Silesia, not sparing the Duchy of Münsterberg which, along with its capital, emerged from the war a complete ruin. Another important date in the history of the Duchy of Münsterberg was the year 1654 when the hereditary ownership of the Duchy was granted as to the von Auersperg family as a reward for their service in the Thirty Years’ War. The Duchy remained in the family’s hands until the Silesian Wars when, in 1742, under the Treaty of Breslau, nearly all of Silesia became Prussian domain.

The Cistercian monasteries were important economic and cultural institutions in the Duchy. In the 17th and 18th Century, Henryków and Kamieniec hosted the greatest architects and artists of the age, remodelling the Medieval Gothic churches and monasteries in Baroque style. However, the Prussian rule and the dissolution of monastic orders in 1810 ended monastic developments. The new state also marginalised the Duchy of Münsterberg, which was divided into two districts: Münsterberg and Ząbkowice, and eventually incorporated into the Prussian state in 1791. Are there any traces to be found of Münsterberg’s past as the capital of the Duchy? The only remains of the two castles which once towered over Münsterberg, are single pieces of walls. However, in the town itself, large portions of the defence walls are preserved, as is the Paczków Gate, the only town gate still in existence, and the parish Church of St George (minor basilica), the only material witnesses of the town's long history. Visiting the Museum of Household Appliances in Münsterberg, the only of its kind in Poland, located in the town hall, we cannot ignore the frescos painted by Alfred Gottwald in 1927, among them the scene of death of the last Piast of Münsterberg, Duke John, in battle against the Hussites.

What caused the downfall of the Piast Duchy of Münsterberg? The crucial cause was of course the ineptitude of the lords of the Duchy, but other factors included the political situation in the Silesia, the Bohemian efforts to take over the Silesian duchies, the growing competition of the neighbouring towns of Ząbkowice, Strzelin and Nysa, and the economic and political powerhouses in the vicinity of Münsterberg - the grand Cistercian monasteries in Henryków and Kamieniec, and the Duchy of Nysa ruled by the Bishops of Breslau.