PIĘKNA STUDNIA W NYSIE

The Beautiful Well in Nysa is one of the most magnificent objects of its sort in Europe. Well gratings representing such a high artistic rank are to be found only in Prague, Nürnberg, Innsbruck and Bruck on the Mur. The titular well was founded by Kaspar Naas, the mayor of Nysa. The boarding was built out of marble from nearby Sławniowice. The iron grating was executed in 1686 by Wilhelm Helleweg, the administrator of the diocesan-ducal mint in Nysa and master locksmith at the court of the local bishop. Although the well dates back to the Baroque, it features an overwhelming Renaissance impact together with a discernible reference to forms characteristic for the Middle Ages. The information at our disposal relates to a number of conservation undertakings conducted at rather small intervals. The first took place in 1889, followed by work carried out in 1935. In 1944 the grating was hidden in the Nysa fortifications to protect it against being damaged by Allied air raids. Found after the war, it was conserved and reinstalled in its former place in 1969. The last conservation was performed in 2001 and 2005. The Beautiful Well, one of the oldest Silesian objects with a water pump, fulfilled its basic functions until the end of the nineteenth century. Its water was used by the bakers and butchers of Nysa, and it ceased being used after the introduction of a municipal water-main at the end of the nineteenth century. The well is one of the most breathtaking monuments of the past in the architecture of Nysa, brimming with historical treasures. It was also the object of interest on the part of graphic artists and photographers as well as men of letters. The circumstances of its origin became the motif of a drama in five acts – “Der Schöne Brunnen in Neisse”, written by a local Verbist, Rev. Alfred Wlotzka (published in Nysa in 1922).