Goldstein Palace

The Pałac Goldsteinów or ''Goldstein Palace'' is

neo-renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

palace, which was built by two brothers, Abraham and Joseph Goldstein. It is located in Katowice,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, at the west end of the city centre, at . The palace is representative for the building style of second part of the 1870s. Front elevations and interior staircases are decorated in typical

ornamentation. The opulent use of

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

testifies of the owner's wealth. It has two floors. On every floor there are lords’ room, kitchen, bathroom, pantry and two rooms for staff. The Goldstein brothers owned

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

s in multiple cities in Poland, also in Katowice, on the background of palace. After a fire burned down the Katowice sawmill in 1892, the Goldstein brothers, because of heavy losses, switched their main business to

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

. The Estate was sold to the firm "Kohlen Produzenten Georg Von Giesches Erben". Before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the local Chamber of Commerce was located in the building. From 1952 until 1990, the building housed the Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Radzieckiej (''Fellowship of Polish-

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

friendship'') and the ''Przyjaźń'' (friendship) cinema. From 1960 to 1970 in the basements was a vanguard theater named "12a". There also was a restaurant "Kolumb" in the building, but currently it is undergoing reconstruction to become a ''Urząd Stanu Cywilnego'' (''Registry Office'') in 2007. The owner of the Goldstein Palace is City of Katowice. The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

of the building is unknown, but historians suspect him to be from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. Buildings and structures in Katowice Palaces in Poland Tourist attractions in Katowice {{Poland-struct-stub