Kościół pw. Świętej Klary i Świętej Jadwigi, Wrocław

The Church of Saints Clare and Hedwig began with a Poor Clare convent founded in twelve fifty-seven. Rebuilt in Baroque form at the end of the seventeenth century, it now includes the Mausoleum of the Silesian Piasts, with ducal tomb slabs and the heart urn of Princess Karolina.

The Church of Saints Clare and Hedwig is a Roman Catholic church whose former Poor Clare convent is now home to the Roman Union Ursulines and their secondary school. The convent began in twelve fifty-seven, when Duchess Anna Přemyslid brought the Poor Clares to Wrocław. For nearly five centuries this was an exceptionally select community: at first it admitted only women from princely and knightly families, and for two hundred years only princely daughters could become abbess.

The present Baroque form dates from a complete rebuilding between sixteen ninety-six and sixteen ninety-nine. Notice the tower joined to the church at its southwest corner: its Baroque cap, lost in the destruction of nineteen forty-five, returned in September twenty thirteen. The church itself was devastated that year, with its roof and vaulting destroyed.

The adjoining Saint Hedwig chapel survived with its Baroque character and became the complex’s main worship space. Inside the former church is the Mausoleum of the Silesian Piasts. It displays surviving grave slabs for three Wrocław dukes and several Piast princesses. An urn in the pier between chapel and church holds the heart of Princess Karolina, who died in seventeen oh seven, the last Piast woman.