Góra Świętej Anny () or St. Anne Mountain (; ) is an inselberg in Upper Silesia, Poland, next to the community of the same name. It is the location of the Franciscan monastery with the miraculous statue of St. Anne and the imposing calvary, which is an important destination for Roman Catholic pilgrimage. The Composed Cultural and Natural Landscape of Góra Świętej Anny was announced one of Poland's official Historic Monuments (Pomnik historii) by the National Heritage Board and the President of Poland.
Geology The Annaberg is a volcanic cone of Tertiary basalt, the easternmost end of the Silesian volcanic belt and the easternmost occurrence of basalt in Europe.Review: "Dr. Partsch's 'Silesia,—A Geographical Study'", The Geographical Journal, Royal Geographical Society, 7 (1896) 417–20, p. 419: "the Annaberg (1350 feet), the most easterly cone of Tertiary basalt in Europe."Henning Sørensen, The Alkaline Rocks, London/New York: Wiley, 1974, , p. 260.Sidney Osborne, The Upper Silesian Question and Germany's Coal Problem, London: Allen and Unwin, 1920, , p. 150: "The Annaberg, about 1300 feet high, situate[d] approximately ten miles southwest of Gross Strehlitz, contains beds of basalt, and it is a noteworthy fact that it is the most eastern point in Europe where basalt can be found." It is high."Schlesien (Preußisch-)", Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon Volume 14 Rudera—Soccus, 14th ed. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1908, p. 499 Erdmute Nieke, Religiöse Bilderbogen aus Neuruppin: Eine Untersuchung zur Frömmigkeit im 19. Jahrhundert, Europäische Hochschulschriften Series 23: Theology, Volume 865, Frankfurt: Lang, 2008, , p. 87
History
The hill was a pagan shrine in pre-Christian times.Juliane Haubold, "Der Gipfel der Symbolik: Der Sankt Annaberg als Verkörperung Oberschlesiens", in Wiedergewonnene Geschichte: zur Aneignung von Vergangenheit in den Zwischenräumen Mitteleuropas, ed. Peter Oliver Loew, Christian Pletzing and Thomas Serrier, Veröffentlichungen des Deutschen Polen-Instituts Darmstadt 22, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006, , pp. 347–62, p. 348 J. Chmielus, "Der St. Annaberg bei Groß-Strehlitz", in Bunte Bilder aus dem Schlesierlande Volume 2, Schlesischer Pestalozzi-Verein, Breslau: Woywod, 1903, , pp. 399–404, p. 400 says this is "probable".
It was formerly known as the Chelmberg; around 1100 a wooden chapel to St. George was built on the hill,Chmielus, p. 400. and it became known as the Georgenberg (St. George's hill). In 1516 the noble family of von Gaschin, who had moved to Silesia from Poland in the mid-15th century, erected a church dedicated to St. Anne on the Chelmberg. The hill became a popular pilgrimage destination, especially after the donation in 1560 of a wooden statue of St. Anne, containing relics, which is still in the church today.
Count Melchior Ferdinand von Gaschin wanted to make the hill the seat of Franciscans, and during the Swedish-Polish War, the order decided to close its houses in Kraków and Lwów and move to Silesia for safety, and an agreement was made under which they would take over the church on the Annaberg. 22 Franciscans moved there on 1 November 1655.Lucius Teichmann, Die Franziskanerklöster in Mittel- und Ostdeutschland, 1223-1993 (ehemaliges Ostdeutschland in den Reichsgrenzen von 1938), Studien zur katholischen Bistums- und Klostergeschichte 37, Leipzig: Benno, 1995, , p. 96 The count had a simple wooden monastery building built and replaced the church with a new stone building which was dedicated on 1 April 1673.Chmielus, p. 401. The church attracted increasing numbers of pilgrims and led to the hill's becoming known as St. Anne's hill. In addition to pilgrims' hostels and other infrastructure, in the 19th century, three publishing firms were established to serve the needs of pilgrims, by Franz Gielnik, Michael Rogier and Adolf Marcyago.Nieke, p. 88. In 1864, 400,000 pilgrims visited the church.
After the First World War, a plebiscite was held on 20 March 1921 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles to determine whether the parts of Silesia which had belonged to Prussia and thus to the German Empire would remain German or join the reconstituted Poland. In the parish of Annaberg, as in most of Upper Silesia, a majority voted for Germany, but the local administrative district (Landkreis Groß Strehlitz) was one of the areas where the majority favoured reunion with Poland. In early May the Third Silesian Uprising began, with Polish units of the Wawelberg Group, against the wishes of the Polish government, seeking to unite with Poland those areas that had voted for it. On 4 May they captured the Annaberg, which in addition to the cultural importance of the monastery for German Silesians, had strategic importance since it dominates the Oder valley,Carlos Caballero Jurado, The German Freikorps 1918–23, Elite Series 76, Oxford: Osprey, 2001, , p. 32. from the legally limited forces of the German army. On 21–23 May, in the Battle of Annaberg, unofficial German forces of the Upper Silesian Selbstschutz and the Bavarian Freikorps Oberland, under the command of Generalleutnant Bernhard von Hülsen, retook part of the hill.Christian Raitz von Frentz, A Lesson Forgotten: Minority Protection Under the League of Nations: The Case of the German Minority in Poland, 1920–1934, Arbeiten zur Geschichte Osteuropas 8, Münster: Lit / New York: St. Martin's, 1999, , pp. 76–77.Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland, Volume 2 1795 to the Present, 1981, rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University / New York: Columbia University, , p. 373. There were heavy losses on both sides and fighting took place in several neighbouring villages. Several participants on the German side were later prominent in the Nazi regime.
With the battle added to its existing role symbolising the Catholic identity of Silesia within predominantly Protestant Prussia, the Annaberg became a powerful symbol of German regional nationalism; it features in this role in the 1927 propaganda film Land unterm Kreuz.Haubold, p. 349. It also had religious and cultural importance for Polish Silesians; it was the subject of a poem by Norbert Bonczyk; and after the 1921 battle, also became a political symbol for Poles.Haubold, p. 356.
In 1934–1936, the Nazis built a Thingstätte on the site of a quarry at the base of the hill.Janusz L. Dobesz, "Der Umgang mit dem Bau- und Kunsterbe als Spiegel der polnisch-deutschen und polnisch-russischen Beziehungsgeschichte", in Neue Staaten, neue Bilder?: visuelle Kultur im Dienst staatlicher Selbstdarstellung in Zentral- und Osteuropa seit 1918, ed. Arnold Bartetzky, Marina Dmitrieva and Stefan Troebst with Thomas Fichtner, Visuelle Geschichtskultur 1, Cologne: Böhlau, 2005, , pp. 301–08, p. 304 In 1936–1938, a mausoleum for 51 fallen members of the German Freikorps, designed by Robert Tischler, was erected overlooking this, and a rest stop provided from which users of the new Reichsautobahn (today the Polish A4 autostrada) could take a 10-minute walk to visit the monument.Meinhold Lurz, "Denkmäler an der Autobahn—die Autobahn als Denkmal", in Reichsautobahn: Pyramiden des Dritten Reichs. Analysen zur Ästhetik eines unbewältigten Mythos, ed. Reiner Stommer with Claudia Gabriele Philipp, Marburg: Jonas, 1982, , pp. 155–92, pp. 169–70 The intent was for the complex of mausoleum and theatre to be a counter to the monastery and "transform the Annaberg into the symbol of Upper Silesia and an appropriate site of religious and national celebration".Haubold, p. 354: "Ausbau des Annaberges zum Wahrzeichen Oberschlesiens und zu einer würdigen religiösen und nationalen Feierstätte". However, after its inauguration in May 1938, the theatre was not used again for ceremonies, while pilgrims continued to visit the monastery in ever increasing numbers.
The mausoleum was dynamited in 1945 and in 1955 was replaced by a monument to the Silesian rebels, designed by Xawery Dunikowski.Dobesz, "Der Umgang mit dem Bau- und Kunsterbe", p. 305.
The monks have been expelled from the monastery three times, under Napoleon (in 1810; pilgrims brought their own priests with them and the Franciscans did not return until 1859), Bismarck, and Hitler. When they returned in 1945, they did not reinstate German-language services at the church until June 1989.Politische Studien 41 (1990) p. 731 "Góra Świętej Anny", in Mark Salter and Jonathan Bousfield, Rough Guide to Poland, 5th ed. London: Rough Guides, 2002, , p. 582. Helmut Kohl had intended to attend a service there during his reconciliation tour of Poland in November 1989 from which he was recalled by the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November.Christoph Gunkel, "Helmut Kohls Polen-Reise 1989: Problemfall Mauerfall", einestages, Der Spiegel, retrieved 23 May 2012 (This was regarded as an unfortunate choice and Kohl was instead taken to Helmut von Moltke's estate, where a chaotic mass in Polish took place with members of the German minority attempting to sing hymns to St. Anne.Peter Schneider, German Comedy: Scenes of Life After the Wall, tr. Philip Boehm and Leigh Hafrey, New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux/Noonday / London: Macmillan, 1992, , pp. 54–55.) The monastery today draws thousands of pilgrims every year, particularly from Upper Silesia itself and especially for St. Anne's Day, 26 July, and for the Catholic Church is a symbol of piety that transcends national boundaries.Haubold, p. 347. In March 1980, Pope John Paul II declared the church a minor basilica.Teichmann, p. 185.
On 14 April 2004, the Annaberg was declared a Polish historic monument.Sankt Annaberg: Sanktuarium der hl. Anna Selbdritt Pomnik historii , Góra Świętej Anny: Sanktuarium świętej Anny Samotrzeciej
Monuments Monastery
The monastery buildings, at the top of the hill, are Baroque; the church was rebuilt in 1665 and the other buildings, which form a quadrangle on its south side, date to 1733–49.Jahrbuch der Schlesischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau 32 (1992) p. 95 The main object of veneration by the pilgrims is a statue of St. Anne with the Virgin and Child carved out of lime wood above the main altar in the church, about tall, which supposedly contains relics of the saint from the monastery of Ville near Lyon in France and is credited with miracles. It is said to have been donated to the church by Nikolaus von Kochtitzky, a local nobleman, in 1560, and is dressed in cloth of gold with pearls.
Outside the church is the Paradiesplatz (Paradise Square), a formal monastery garden laid out in 1804. Below the monastery there is a Calvary (a path between stations of the Passion of Christ) with 33 Baroque chapels as stations. This was specified in the will of Count Melchior Ferdinand von Gaschin, who thought the landscape of the Annaberg resembled that of Jerusalem and its surroundings; it was constructed under his nephew, Georg Adam von Gaschin, in 1700–09 to designs by Domenico Signo and partly rebuilt in 1764 and again in 1780–85, when the Holy Stairs were added to designs by Christoph Worbs.Hanna Faryna-Paszkiewicz, Małgorzata Omilanowska and Robert Pasieczny, Atlas zabytków architektury w Polsce, Warsaw: Wydawn Nauk PWN, 2001, , p. 429 According to Nieke, p. 88, more chapels were added in 1760–64 and there were 42 in the 19th century. Georg Adam and Anton von Gaschin are buried in the crypt of the Cross Chapel and depicted larger than life on its central columns.Chmielus, p. 403. In 1912 the Lourdes Grotto was added.Alma Mater (Jagiellonian University) 100 (2008) p. 25
Amphitheatre