Rudy Palace-Monastery

The Palace-Monastery of Rudy (Polish: Pocysterski Zespół Klasztorno-Pałacowy w Rudach (Wielkich) or German: Schloss Rauden or German: Kloster Rauden) is located in Rudy within the Racibórz County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland.^[1]

The gothic Cistercian monastery was founded in the 13th century. During the 17th and 18th century, it was rebuilt in baroque style. It was a thriving school which included an impressive library. After the secularization, it became property of the prince of Hesse-Rothenburg and subsequently, the dukes of Ratibor and princes of Corvey, a branch of the Hohenlohe family. They made it their principal seat, which it remained up to the end of the Second World War. It was looted and set afire by the Red Army. The monastery church was immediately rebuilt, but the remaining buildings were only restored from the 1990s onwards. In 1998, it was transferred to the Diocese of Gliwice, and it has been an educational centre since, with the opportunity to stay the night over.