Cistercian monastery shop, Szczyrzyc: abbey cheese, milk and Gryf beer

Szczyrzyc is a village in the Stradomka valley on the edge of the Beskid Wyspowy, about an hour's drive south-east of Kraków. Its heart is the Cistercian abbey: the monks arrived in the first half of the 13th century and, according to the monastery itself, have lived here without interruption since 1234. As eight centuries ago, they live from the work of their own hands: they farm about 200 hectares, grow vegetables in the monastery garden, keep a herd of the rare Polish Red cattle breed and brew beer to a traditional recipe.

In 2023 the monks opened a monastery shop (Sklep klasztorny) selling the produce of their farm. Opposite stands the brewery — the Szczyrzyc Cistercian Brewery “Gryf” (Szczyrzycki Browar Cystersów „Gryf”). It is one of very few places in the Polish Carpathians where the milk, the cheese and the beer all come straight from the monastery yard. In 2022 an episode of the TVP cookery series “Klasztorne smaki” was filmed here: with the prior, the chef cooked beef with vegetables from the monastery garden, flatbreads (podpłomyki) made with the local beer and a salad with cheeses from the Szczyrzyc cows’ milk.

Why go

• Buy genuine farm produce from the monastery cows that graze on the surrounding meadows.
• Try the monastery beer — more than 15 kinds of “Gryf”; unpasteurised draught beer can be taken home.
• Combine shopping with a walk around the historic abbey, its garden and the countryside, and in winter with the living nativity scene by the church.

This is not a tasting room but a small shop: people come for the food, so it suits families with children and those who do not hike — everything is next to the car park.

What to taste and buy

Dairy. Fresh unpasteurised milk in one-litre bottles (easy to skim for cream or leave to sour), butter, country cream, soured milk, natural and fruit yoghurts. Cheese: twaróg curd cheese; fresh rennet cheeses — plain, with herbs, with sun-dried tomatoes and with nigella; matured rennet cheeses — plain, with herbs and with tomatoes, whose flavour grows stronger the longer they age.

Juices from the monastery kitchen: apple, cherry, raspberry, currant, aronia, and elderflower/elderberry. “Gryf” beer: pale — opackie (abbot's), przeora (prior's), Grodzisko, Szczyrzycanka; dark — porter, Sporne, Eliksir; flavoured — honey and “Szczyrzycanka in the cherry orchard”. Honey, candles, postcards and abbey souvenirs are sold too.

Practical information

Where: the shop is on the large car park by the church and abbey, behind the parish building (on the left when you face the church front). Abbey address: 34-623 Szczyrzyc 1. It is easiest to come by car from the direction of Dobczyce or Limanowa; the large car park is right by the monastery gate. Bring a cool bag for the raw milk and fresh cheese.

Opening hours (as of October 2026): Monday–Saturday 9:00–17:00, Sunday 13:30–17:00. Closed on Easter Sunday, Christmas, Corpus Christi, All Saints' Day and 1 January. No booking needed. Prices are not published online. Abbey phone: +48 18 332 00 04.

Nearby

• The Cistercian abbey with the Church of the Assumption and the monastery garden — a few steps away.
• Marysia restaurant by the car park — regional cooking and its own copper brewhouse.
• A living nativity scene by the church from 25 December to 2 February, daily 10:00–18:00.
• Beskid Wyspowy — marked trails lead from the village to the surrounding summits.

Official website: szczyrzyc.cystersi.pl

Photos: Skitof, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons; WarXboT, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.