Church "On The Hill"

Church of Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Wojciech - the oldest Roman Catholic church in Opole. According to legend, it was built in the place where - somewhere between the years 984 and 995 - sermons were preached by St. Wojciech. He is said to have taught with such zeal that his footprints were imprinted on the stone on which he stood. When there was no water for baptism on the hill on which the temple stands today, the missionary struck the rock with his staff and a miraculous spring gushed out of it. To this day, at the back of the Opole University church located next to the church, there is the well of St. Wojciech. The wooden church in this place was supposed to be built around 1000. The brick church was built by the Dominicans who were brought to Opole in the 13th century. Later it was destroyed by fires and the Swedish army, and at the beginning of the 19th century - after the secularization of religious goods - it was turned into a warehouse and part of a hospital. Today it is one of the most popular temples in the city. It includes, among others A 17th-century painting depicting the legendary stay of St. Wojciech in Opole or the painting of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the same century, which was brought to Opole by repatriates from Stanisławów.