It is one of the most magnificent and beautiful Baroque buildings in Silesia, the place where the Book of Henryków was written – a landmark of Polish writing.

[1] Currently, the monastery buildings house, among others, Annus Propedeuticus – a branch of the Metropolitan Theological Seminary in Wrocław (until 2018) – and the Blessed Edmund Bojanowski Catholic High School.

It was then that Duke Henry I the Bearded gave Nicholas, the canon of the cathedral in Wrocław, the permission to establish a Cistercian order in Henryków, a branch of the abbey in Lubiąż, in the valley of the Oława river.

The situation of the monastery was additionally worsened by the death of Duke Henry the Pious in the battle of Legnica.

In 1438 it was destroyed by the army of Sigismund von Reichenau, and in 1459 by the invading Czech troops of King George of Poděbrady.

Abbot Andrew had a significant contribution, which resulted in the construction of Renaissance elements of the monastery buildings.

The monks were ordered to lock their dormitories for the night, they were forbidden to meet for food and drink, and to engage in pointless disputes after the evening assembly.

The development of the Henryków Abbey was interrupted by the Thirty Years' War, when the monastery was looted and burned down.

Traditionally, German historians saw the monks as harbinger western economy and technology to the region in the context of Medieval Ostsiedlung.

These authors point out that on the vast swaths of uncultivated land granted to the Abbey, many villages according to German law spread up.

However, while it is true that all villages were founded on Slavic predecessor settlements the monks' work amounted to a revolutionary change in local economic structure.

Other paintings by Willmann and Jan Liszka were created at that time, as well as sculptures by Maciej Steinl, Tomasz Weissfeldt, Jerzy Leonard Weber and one of the finest Rococo monastic stalls in Poland, the work of unknown Cistercian woodcarvers, decorated with reliefs with scenes from the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

On 22 November 1810 the Prussian King Frederick William III, looking for funds to reinforce the army, announced the secularization edict.

Soon after the secularization, the Henryków estate was purchased by the Dutch queen Frederica Wilhelmina, sister of the Prussian king.

Later the abbey buildings housed an elite hospital for mentally ill. During the Third Reich, a military factory was organized in Henryków, where prisoners of war from Luxembourg worked.

On 25 September 1990 Annus Propedeuticus was established in the premises of the abbey as a branch of the Metropolitan Theological Seminary in Wrocław for the clerics of the first year.

On 28 October 2000 Henryków was visited by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – later Pope Benedict XVI – for the solemn ceremony of placing the tunics on the students of the first year of the Metropolitan Theological Seminary in Wrocław.

In 1997, the St. Hedwig of Silesia Caritas Care Home was established as a votive offering for the 46th International Eucharistic Congress, which took place in Wrocław.

In 2005 in part of the buildings a new Therapy Workshops were created, named after John Paul II and run by the diocesan Caritas.

The main altar, the work of Georg Schroetter, was created between 1681 and 1684 and is decorated with two paintings by Michael Willmann, the large one depicting the Nativity as seen by St Bernard, and the upper one, the Saviour of the World.

After 1700, the abbot's and prior's boxes were added, and the entire structure was enriched with four pairs of free-standing statues of St. Gregory the Great, Eugene III, St. Jerome, Conrad de Poitiers, St. Benedict and St. Bernard.

The organ is complemented by 14 Baroque paintings depicting the life and legend of St. Bernard, located in the upper part of the nave.

The Oak Room has a richly inlaid parquet floor and wood panelling decorated with floral and fruit garlands (all made by Henryków woodcarvers).

The refectory has a decorative, multicolored rococo stove (each tile painted by hand) and oak benches from the eighteenth century.

A monument was erected next to the monastery, commemorating the writing of the Book of Henryków, which is as famous a historical object as the abbey itself.