History
The Cistercian nunnery of Cedynia (German: Zehden) was founded around the mid-13th century, but initially the convent was to be located in Trzcińsko. Only when it found itself within the reach of military operations, as a result of the conquests of the Margraves of Brandenburg in 1250-1260, was moved to Cedynia before 1266. It was first mentioned in records in 1278, when Bishop Hermann of Kamień issued a document “in claustro sanctimonialium in Sedene”. The next mention dates back to 1294, when the monastery was exempted from papal interdict.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the nunnery encountered financial difficulties. These were so severe that in 1311 the Cistercian chaplain and the abbess approached Bishop Heinrich von Wachholtz of Kamień, requesting assistance. Moreover, the Cistercian nuns sought assistance from the knights of the New March and Pomerania, thanks to whom the monastery obtained a number of village endowments. This allowed the Cistercian nuns to enter the period of greatest prosperity, begun under the rule of the Wittelsbach margraves in Brandenburg, before the end of the 14th century.
The monastery was probably destroyed by fire around the mid-15th century. This may have been linked to the Polish-Teutonic conflict or the Hussite invasion of 1432. Alternatively, it was an accident caused by careless handling of fire. Reconstruction focused primarily on the most damaged eastern wing, which interior was later re-divided.
The end of the monastery came with the Reformation in 1555. The last nuns stayed there until 1611, because there was a school for brides of noble origin in post-monastery buildings. Later, it was transformed into the office of the Brandenburg elector. In 1699, it was destroyed by a fire. Soon it was rebuilt and transformed into a land estate. In the years 1811-1870, in the monastery operated a post-office, and then until 1940 again was the seat of the owner of the land estate.
Architecture
The nunnery was built directly next to the settlement, on the adjacent high escarpment of the Oder River valley. The buildings occupied the western edge of the hill, which sloped steeply toward the Oder and the settlement to the west, and more gently to the north and south. To the east stretched a plateau dotted with numerous lakes. The complex consisted of the church and the western and eastern wings adjacent to it from the south, while the western wing was connected with the church by a wall adjacent to its western façade right next to the portal entrance to the church. There was a trapezoidal garth between the wings, closed from the south with a short wing or a simple wall. The courtyard was surrounded by cloisters attached to the buildings, and the entire monastery hill was surrounded by a high wall of erratic stones with gates and wickets. Next to the claustrum located in the western part, on the eastern side of the yard, there were numerous economic buildings.
The walls of the nunnery were built of stones, with granite blocks used for the church’s facades, and a core made of erratic stones. More carefully worked ashlars were placed at the corners to reinforce the structure. The window and portal jambs were also made of ashlar. Similarly, the walls of the claustrum consisted of only roughly hewn erratic stones on the facade, with the ashlars reinforcing the corners and providing architectural detail. The higher sections of the walls, the cloisters, and presumably the church gables, were made of bricks (hand-made, finger-shaped bricks). Generally, the best-cut stones were used in the earliest phase of construction, while the more poorly worked stones and bricks were used during later rebuildings.
The church was an aisleless, orientated structure, 37 x 12 meters, without a separate chancel, with a streight wall on the eastern side. The outer walls of the church were divided with buttresses and large windows embedded between them. The eastern and western gables had stepped forms with pinnacles. The presence of buttresses would indicate that the interior was vaulted. The whole building was covered with a ceramic gable roof.
The eastern wing of the nunnery, 42 x 10 meters, was divided into four rooms in the ground floor. The first three from the side of the church had a square plan, the last ones in the south was a large, spacious chamber. The room adjacent to the church probably housed the sacristy, the next one could be the parlour (a place where the sisters could talk without fear of breaking their vows of silence), then the chapter house (hall for daily meetings, sessions and courts of the convent) and a room for nuns intended for work. There was a dormitory for nuns on the first floor.
The western wing, measuring 53 x 11.6 meters, was clasped with buttresses from the outside (south and west sides). The building was covered with a gable roof based on triangular gables with a decoration in the form of ogival blendes in a pyramidal arrangement. Inside, the space on the ground floor was divided into two longitudinal rooms. The northern room, constituting a warehouse, originally adjoined the covered cloister and the monastery gate. The southern part of the wing had a basement and a refectory. The elevations were pierced with narrow windows with strong, double-splayed and pointed-arch jambs. The second storey, made entirely of brick, housed the dormitory of the lay-sisters. The storeys were separated by wooden, beamed ceilings, only the basement had vault.
The southern wings of Cistercian abbeys usually housed a kitchen, other utility rooms and a refectory. The conducted research showed, however, the lack of foundations in the Cedynia convent, which led to the conclusion that the southern wing probably was not completed, although it was planned (the presence of toothing in the eastern facade of the western building).
Current state
The partially rebuilt west wing of the nunnery, rebuilt in 1997-2005 by a private investor, has survived to the present day. In its southern and western elevations, the original, narrow windows have been preserved, the renovated gable and entrance portals are also visible. Currently, the building houses the hotel and restaurant “Klasztor Cedynia”.
bibliography:
Jarzewicz J., Gotycka architektura Nowej Marchii, Poznań 2000.
Nawrolski T., Klasztor cysterek w Cedyni, pow. Chojna w świetle badań archeologicznych, “Materiały Zachodniopomorskie”, tom XVIII/1972.
Piasek D., Średniowieczne kościoły granitowe Pomorza Szczecińskiego i Nowej Marchii, Gdynia 2023.
Pilch J., Kowalski S., Leksykon zabytków Pomorza Zachodniego i ziemi lubuskiej, Warszawa 2012.