Trzebnica

A town in Lower Silesia with the basilica and tomb of St Hedwig of Silesia in a former Cistercian abbey, reached from Wrocław Główny by regional train in about 45 minutes.

Trzebnica seen across autumn trees under a dark cloudy sky: the yellow basilica with its red and black patterned roof and a slender green turret, the tall white tower with a green copper lantern beside it, and the town's red roofs behind, above a crumbling bank of earth in the foreground.

Jar.ciurus Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0

What it is

Trzebnica is a town in Lower Silesia. The basilica of St Bartholomew and St Hedwig, and the former abbey beside it, are what a visitor goes for: it is the shrine of St Hedwig of Silesia (Święta Jadwiga Śląska), the patron saint of Silesia.

The abbey and St Hedwig

Duke Henry the Bearded and his wife Hedwig founded the abbey and its church in 1202, and it became a convent of Cistercian nuns. Pope Clement IV declared Hedwig a saint in 1267. Her tomb is in the chapel of St Hedwig in the church.

The church is Romanesque in origin, with the Romanesque crypt of St Bartholomew under its chancel, and was remodelled in the Baroque style. The former abbey has been a Monument of History (Pomnik historii) since 2014.

Inside the basilica at Trzebnica: a white nave with gilded Baroque carving, a carved pulpit on the left, white and gold statues on the pillars, and at the end a tall dark and gold high altar with a painting, under a lit chandelier, with rows of wooden pews in front.

The high altar of the basilica, seen down the nave.

Mach240390 Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0

A day on foot: from the station to the forest church

The map follows one day out: the Koleje Dolnośląskie train from Wrocław Główny to Trzebnica, then on foot from the station to the market square and the basilica, down to the ponds, and through the beech forest to the forest church. It plays by itself; the stops are listed under it.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the ODbL: the rail line, roads, river, streets, paths, buildings, water and woods. The walk is routed with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.

  1. Trzebnica station
  2. Market square
  3. Basilica of St Hedwig
  4. Trzebnica ponds
  5. Forest church
A dirt path climbing through a green forest between tall, smooth grey tree trunks, with young trees and fallen leaves on either side.

A path through the woods.

bahryn Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0

The ponds

South of the basilica, at the edge of the beech forest, in the part of town that was its pre-war spa, lie the ponds (Stawy Trzebnickie). The town has restored them as a place to walk: paved paths with lamps and benches run round the water, and between the ponds stand an open-air amphitheatre and brine graduation towers (tężnie solankowe).

One of the ponds at Trzebnica on a summer evening: still water reflecting reeds and trees, a wooded hill on the far side, and on the right a paved path with a railing under tall old trees.

One of the ponds, with the path along its bank.

bahryn Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0

The forest church

The forest church (Kościółek Leśny), the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, stands in the beech forest (Las Bukowy) that was part of the pre-war spa. It was built in 1886 in the Gothic Revival style. Hermits who lived beside it looked after it; the last, Brother Feliks Plitzko, died in 1946.

The forest church at Trzebnica: a small red-brick church with pointed windows, a grey slate roof and a slender lantern turret on its ridge, standing in a fenced lawn in front of tall green trees and a spruce.

The forest church, in red brick.

Strumyczek Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

Behind the church is a grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, built of bog iron ore in 1926, and the Stations of the Cross stand along the forest paths around it.

A white stone shrine marked VIII with a painted scene in its niche, beside a dirt path running between bare beech trees in early spring sunshine.

A station of the Way of the Cross beside a forest path.

Olgierd Rudak Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

Getting there from Wrocław

Koleje Dolnośląskie (KD), the regional railway, runs direct trains from Wrocław Główny to Trzebnica on its line D8; the fastest take about 45 minutes. More on regional trains is on the trains page.

Checked 25 October 2026 Lines, stops and times change with every timetable, so this page prints none. Check KD’s timetable for the day you go, and look at the last connection back before you set out. How to visit the basilica and the crypt is on the parish’s page below.

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