Rybnik's Cistercian mansion rose from ruins. Although its walls once housed frescoes by a well-known painter, under which the monastery's farm manager spent his days, in recent years it has been transformed into a shapeless brick block. Today there are stuccoed walls, a stud farm and even a French garden. And then there's the brand-new building that earned the TOPROJEKT team an honorable mention in a competition for the best Silesian architecture. What does Heritage Resort hide behind the wooden grate?
The 18th-century manor complex, once the seat of the Cistercian farm manager, grew out of the traditions of the Cistercian order, which arrived in nearby Raciborski Ore in the mid-13th century. The Cistercians, in accordance with their rule, colonized the wilderness, developing intensive farming, forestry and fishing. A lasting vestige of this heritage is the "Cistercian Landscape Compositions" landscape park, in whose area the mansion lies.
- reads the Heritage Resort's description.
The mansion, rebuilt according to a concept by the Toprojekt studio, is one of many architecturally valuable buildings located within the said landscape park. For more than 550 years of the Rudy monastery's activity, the Cistercians also left behind several other manors in the nearby area, including those in Zwonowice, Plichowice and Lyski, as well as churches, such as the wooden churches in Wilcza, Bełk and Palowice.
Farmstead on the Ore
Today the Heritage Resort, also operating under the name Bel Mon Resort, is located within the Barns, once a monastery village and since 1977 a district of Rybnik, located northwest of the city center. Despite being annexed to Rybnik, the neighborhood has retained its suburban character - it is dominated by single-family housing, concentrated along Rudzka Street, which connects Rybnik with Rudy, and a few perpendicular blocks leading to it. The landscape is dominated by fields, but there is no shortage of young forests and groves, between which the Ruda River meanders, flowing through the nearby Rybnik Lake.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
Cistercian Manor in Rybnik
In this landscape, the Cistercian foundation on Stalowa Street in Rybnik was (and - fortunately - still is) a spatial dominant. Its most important element is the manor house - a two-story block from 1774, erected on a rectangular plan, and covered with a relatively steep mansard roof. It was accompanied by outbuildings from different periods, built in a row in an oblong block, set perpendicular to the longer side of the mansion. The Late Baroque complex was also diversified for decades by the BRDA cottage, which is well established in the Polish landscape. Tucked away at the back of the complex, it should not have taken away its charm. And it probably didn't, but by no means due to its inconvenient location, but due to the terrible condition of the historic buildings.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
For decades, the Cistercian mansion in Stodoly fell into disrepair. In recent years it has housed an equestrian center and a center for hippotherapy, rehabilitation conducted with horses. The grounds of the manor in Stodoly were heavily overgrown, and on the facades of the main building one could hardly find remnants of plaster and original architectural details that once adorned the building, which, by the way, was already listed in the register of historical monuments in 1966.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
Bel Mon Resort
A new opportunity for the baroque complex came with the arrival of an investor, who in 2016 bought the property with plans to turn it into a luxury leisure center. The idea involved the city, which established a Local Development Plan for the Barn District, allowing for the smooth implementation of the facilities, and even allocated an additional 150,000 zlotys for the renovation of the historic building. However, Rybnik's Toprojekt studio played a key role in the whole endeavor, developing a concept for the redevelopment as early as 2019.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
return to the past
The basic measure was to restore the historic building to its glory days:
The preservation of the mansion was extremely demanding: there was a lack of iconographic materials, and the former stucco was removed. The salvaged mass, however, retained its original proportions. On the basis of detail relics and few post-war photographs, the historical character of the building was reconstructed in cooperation with the provincial conservator.
- We read in the description of the realization.
The outline of the mansion's body has not changed, no extensions or other elements that could clearly indicate the contemporary character of the restoration have been created. Light-colored plaster was returned to the elevations, as well as architectural detailing in the form of pilasters on the south elevation of the window frames present in the second story. The windows, meanwhile, were filled with sashes with light-colored woodwork, referring to historical solutions.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
dining under the frescoes
In the interiors, which have been carefully renovated, elements that recall the building's past have also returned. The ceilings of one of the court's rooms were once decorated with plafonds painted by the Moravian artist František Sebastini, who - in accordance with monastic principles - filled them with depictions of, among others, the Imprisonment of Christ, the Multiplication of Bread and the Merciful Samaritan Woman. The restored paintings are now housed in a museum in Pszczyna, with contemporary reconstructions created in their place instead.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
The Mona restaurant was located in the mansion's rooms, centered around a representative staircase. Its guests can sit at tables with exposed brick vaults piled above them.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
apartment behind a wooden grate
Heritage Resort is not just a restaurant, however. A completely new building was also built on the site of the previous buildings, which was to be a response to the investor's plans:
The biggest design challenge was to fit the new function into the outline of the old buildings and synchronize it with the 18th-century manor house and the brick barn. The architects dispensed with insincere historicist gestures. The new volume has a sparingly contemporary form; it only retains the heights and angles of the former roofs. The planes of the walls are covered with a wooden grid, behind which the window openings are hidden - thanks to this, despite its considerable dimensions, the hotel does not compete with the monument, but complements it.
- describes the studio.
The layout of the buildings has not fundamentally changed. The new buildings were created in the form of an elongated, two-story and basement block with an added short wing on the south side. The facades of the building were obscured by a series of slender wooden fins, the rhythm of which is emphasized in the evenings by spot lighting. The building was covered with pitched roofs, with planes as if "interrupted" in the place where the historic brick barn adjoins the new volume. This one, like the mansion, has become the subject of renovation. As in the past, its interiors can be accessed by two entrances, located on the north and south sides, hidden behind massive wooden gates.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
A conference room was located in the center, with an exposed roof truss hanging over the interior. The rooms of the new oblong volume instead house the Berry SPA area and 12 suites operating as part of the five-star boutique Lili Hotel, located on the first floor.
French garden in Rybnik
The area between the buildings has also been developed. Although the exuberant ruderal vegetation overgrowing the area has disappeared, the new, much clearer layout emphasizes the historic character of the complex. The square in front of the entrance elevation to the mansion was paved and tidied up, with benches and three, still small trees. The space at the back of the manor was transformed to a much greater extent - the garden there was arranged in the French style, typical for palace (but also, as you can see, manor) settings of the Baroque era.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik - land development project
drawing: Toprojekt
Unlike picturesque, scenographic gardens of the English type (one such garden is located on the grounds of the Ruda Abbey), French compositions are characterized by rigorous symmetry and division into geometric fields. In the center of the Rybnik garden is a fountain, which is surrounded by paths running between evenly trimmed lawns. A stud farm with a paddock and a horse hotel is also part of the complex.
Heritage Resort in Rybnik
Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski © Toprojekt
The restoration and revitalization of the Cistercian manor house in Rybnik probably won't change the face of the entire area - but that's probably a good thing, because its suburban character is where all the charm lies. For sure, they have changed the fate of the monument, which, as it might have seemed, was doomed to progressive degradation. Importantly, the qualities of the intervention of the Rybnik studio Toprojekt have been recognized in the world of architecture - the Heritage Resort in Rybnik was awarded in the category of Public Buildings in the Architecture of the Year of the Silesian Voivodeship 2025 competition!
