Bielitz Zion
The Bielitzer Zion (Polish Bielski Syjon ) is a historic quarter in the upper suburb of Bielsko-Biała (formerly Bielitz ) around Martin-Luther-Platz.
history
It owes its creation to the tolerance patent of Emperor Joseph II on October 13, 1781.
Since the 16th century, the Protestant community of Bielitz was one of the strongest in the principality of Teschen in Silesia. The tolerance patent allowed the Protestant communities to build churches and schools. The buildings were built from March 1782 on the lower part of the urban pastures. The building was erected within 10 years.
The name "Bielitzer Zion " should remind of Jerusalem as a holy place of the community of believers. The first pastor was Johann Traugott Bartelmus (1782). After 1848, Protestants in the Habsburg monarchy were granted the same rights as Catholics, and a new church with a neo-Gothic tower and new school buildings could be built.
Buildings and facilities
The Bielitzer Zion includes:
- the Protestant Church of the Redeemer, built 1782–1790 based on a project by Simon Gottlieb Zug , rebuilt several times in the 19th century, it is the episcopal church of the diocese of Teschen ;
- the Luther Monument (1900, by Franz Vogl), is the only Luther monument in Poland;
- the former evangelical seminary, built in the neo-renaissance style from 1863–1865 by Emanuel Rost, now an administrative college;
- the evangelical girls' school, built in 1896 by Maurice Thien, now School No. 2;
- the "new" Protestant school, built in 1794, now the seat of the bishop of the Diocese of Teschen;
- the Alumneum (higher school), built in 1870 by PE Lauerbach, now grammar school and lyceum;
- the old Protestant cemetery, founded in 1833, a. a. The resting place of Theodor Sixt, Karl Samuel Schneider, Theodor Haase and Gustav Josephy;
- the former “old” Protestant school, was converted into the Augustana publishing company in 1991;
- the former Protestant orphanage, built 1906–1907;
- former deaconess house, built in 1905, now the district attorney's office.
Luther Square - the center of the "Bielitzer Zion"
Church of the Redeemer in Bielsko
Martin Luther Memorial
Former Protestant seminary
Former alumneum
Entrance gate to the old Protestant cemetery
literature
- Reiner Sörries: By the grace of the emperor - Protestant church buildings in the Habsburg Empire. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20154-8
- Richard Ernst Wagner: The Bielitzer Zion in the sermons of his pastors 1782-1921. W. Fröhlich, Bielitz 1921.
