The District Court and prison in Cieszyn

The District Court in Cieszyn, built in a historicist style in 1905, is located at Garncarska street 8, at the corner of Garncarska and Chrobrego Street, Cieszyn, Poland. The buildings of the court and the prison are registered as historic monuments under a registration number DAY-533/87 on 15.10.1987.[1]

The main building of the District Court in Cieszyn

History

In 1901, Emanuel Harbich, the chairman of the regional court commissioned from Cieszyn architect Eugeniusz Fulda, prepared plans for a new building. The reason was that the existing premises of the regional court at the town hall in Cieszyn were insufficient. According to the plans, the building was to be located at Garncarska street, right next to the already existing building of a prison. The construction company of Eugeniusz Fulda participated in the construction of the main body of the building and interior works as well as furnishing of offices were provided by Viennese and local companies. The official opening took place on December 2, 1905 and was associated with 57th anniversary of enthronement of the Emperor Franz Joseph I Habsburg, who possessed, inter alia, the duchy of Cieszyn. The emperor Francis visited the Court on September 2, 1906 and planted an imperial oak in front of the building to commemorate the event.[2]

The building served as the Austrian Regional Court (Kreisgericht) until it was taken over by the Polish State reborn after World War I. In the past, there was a two-headed eagle and an inscription: "K. K. KREISGE-RICHT" - "Imperial-royal Regional Court" over a window on the second floor.[2] The building currently houses the District Court in Cieszyn. In 2005, there was a general overhaul that included reconstruction of façades and the interior.[2] The building has served its purpose continuously since the beginning of its existence.[1]

Architecture

The design of the building was co-created by Rudolph Lang and Czesław Fulda. The building was built on an almost square plan, 58 per 55 metres with an interior courtyard.[2] Its cubature is 5647 m3, the façade surface is 4467 m2, and courtyard surface is 1200 m2.[1] The main façade has a neo-baroque decor composed of rusticated belt plinth and windows surmounted by a massive key. Windows on the first and the second floor have classic bands with keystones and are located between vertical rusticated lisens. The facade is decorated by a central three-axes projection with an entrance gate with an axe and a bunch of fasces in the key (a symbol of justice) and intermittent bridgehead with sitting putti holding a scale and a sword (other attributes of justice). The building is covered by a tin gable roof with dormer windows, and the central projection is emphasised by a high mansard roof. The lobby and a triple staircase are decorated by classicistic arcades, marble columns and balustrades.[2] Opposite the entrance there is a two-metre-high (6.6 ft) statue made of a Canary marble - Iustitia, sculpted by a Viennese artist, Ernest Hegenbarth. It depicts the blindfolded goddess of justice Themis with a sword and an opened book in her hands (a symbol of a blind justice). On the right side of the lobby there is a commemorative plaque made of a Swedish granite with an inscription in German: "Erbaut unter der Regierung Seiner Majestat des Kaisers Franz Joseph I. 1903-1905" ("Built under the reign of His Majesty the Emperor Francis Joseph I. 1903-1905"). Currently the spot is occupied by a plaque from 1928 that commemorates Dr Feliks Bocheński, organiser of the Polish judiciary in Silesia and the first Polish president of the District Court in Cieszyn.[2]

In the building of the court there is a representative court hearings hall. This is a two-story (9 metres high), large (15 per 9.5 metres) room with arcade windows on one of the longer walls and blind arcades in stucco decoration on the other walls. In one of the arcades there is a portrait of the emperor Francis Joseph I in his coronation attire by Aloysius Schwinger from Gratz. The hall is roofed by a mirror vault with semicircular lunettes and decorated by high wooden panelling, portals, a court grandstand and stair benches for the audience.[2]

The prison at the District Court in Cieszyn

The prison in Cieszyn is a closed unit located in the city centre at Bolesława Chrobrego street 2, right next to the District Court.[3] The building was handed over in 1896 and since 1987 has been registered as an architectural monument of the Voivodeship of Silesia under the same registration number as the District Court: A-533/87 from 15.10.198[5].

It has 406 places for penal recidivists and a separate branch for the temporarily arrested remaining in the disposal of: the District Court in Cieszyn, the District Prosecutor's Office in Cieszyn, the District Court in Jastrzębie Zdrój, the District Prosecutor's Office in Jastrzębie Zdrój. Austrian authorities drew up plans for the construction of the prison in November 1858 and the construction works began in March 1881.[3]

During the interwar period, the prison of Cieszyn was given the first category. During World War II the prison was used as a punishment block and an investigation division from which prisons were sent to other prisons and concentration camps. During the German occupation, there were more than 12 thousands people imprisoned there. In smaller prison cells one could keep seven prisoners and several dozens in bigger ones. Prison cells were heated by tiled stoves opened from the side of prison corridors. Large rooms and workshops were lightened by gas lamps. On the premises of the prison there were the following facilities: a pigsty, a carpenter workshop, a basket workshop, a noodle factory, garages and two chapels, Catholic and Protestant. In the mid 50's a pulmonary diseases hospital was opened in a separate part of the prison.[3]

In the eighties the prison underwent a total overhaul that included renovation of the sewage, water and electricity systems. Each prison cell was supplied with running hot water and hospital units were equipped with separate toilets with washbasins in shared prison cells. 1992 saw separation of a part for the temporarily imprisoned. The penitentiary part had 155 rooms. The prisoners could use three common rooms and two libraries and the hospital units had their own baths. Since the renovation the prison has been heated by the urban heating network.[3]

From 2005 to 2007, the prison (the residential part for the prisoners) underwent another general overhaul. Apart from a general overhaul of prison cells a separate space for a canteen for those imprisoned was allocated. Also, the library, the radio broadcast center, and the chapel were renovated. In 2005, the Pulmonary Diseases Hospital was liquidated and consequently the prison's capacity went up, which today is 406 individuals. All prison cells have separate lockable sanitary corners, and are equipped with speakers of the radio broadcast center and household intercoms for contact with the officer in charge and terminals for television signal reception.[3]

Trivia

In 2008 prisoners of the Penitential Unit in Cieszyn worked for the Municipal Roads Administration in Cieszyn. Free of charge intervention works were carried out by 6 - 8 prisoners, who cleaned drainage ditches and did some general cleaning.[4]

On 3 June 2009 at 10.00 P.M., a video installation was organised on the prison walls, entitled "On the walls of the prison of Cieszyn" by Jarosław Skutnik and Adam Molenda. This event was organised within the framework of the Alternative Off -stage organised along the 20th edition of the International Theatre Festival Without Borders.[5]

In 2009, prisoners of the Penitential Unit in Cieszyn cleaned up an old Jewish cemetery in Cieszyn at Hażlaska street. Persons convicted under the so-called less supervision, in groups of 7-10 erected matzevas and cleaned the bushy ground.[6]

On 23 October 2013, a theatre performance of "Osadzony" took place in the prison. It was artistically supervised and directed by Bogusław Słupczyński and based on the novel by Daniel Smętek. The theatre project was implemented by the University of Silesia Branch in Cieszyn and the Penitentiary Unit in Cieszyn.[7]

References
  1. "'KONIOR' - firma projektowo-budowlana".
  2. Mariusz., Makowski (2007). Szlak książąt cieszyńskich. Habsburgowie. Cieszyn: Biuro Promocji i Informacji. Urząd Miejski. ISBN 9788389835147. OCLC 233505261.
  3. "Służba Więzienna / Okręgowy Inspektorat Służby Więziennej Katowice / Zakład Karny Cieszyn".
  4. "Cieszyn: Osadzeni pracują dla miasta - OX.PL Wiadomości".
  5. "Cieszyn. W czerwcu XX Festiwal Teatralny Bez Granic".
  6. "Cieszyn: więźniowie porządkują żydowskie cmentarze - ekai.pl".
  7. "Osadzony | Teatr CST".

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