Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the
Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia ('), with Katowice serving as its capital.
Despite the Silesian ...
in southern
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 populous ...
and the central city of the
Upper Silesian metropolitan area
The Upper Silesian metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava in Silesia and has around 5 million inhabitants. Located in the three administrative ...
Metropolis GZM
The Metropolis GZM ( pl, Metropolia GZM, formally in Polish Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia) is a metropolitan unit composed of 41 contiguous municipalities in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland. The seat of the metropolitan council is ...
, with a population of 2.3 million, and a part of a larger
Upper Silesian metropolitan area
The Upper Silesian metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava in Silesia and has around 5 million inhabitants. Located in the three administrative ...
that extends into the Czech Republic and has a population of 5-5.3 million people."''Study on Urban Functions (Project 1.4.3)''" –
European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion The European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, ESPON for short, is a European funded programme under the objective of "European Territorial Cooperation" of the Cohesion Policy of the European Union. It is co-funded by the ...
, 2007
Throughout the mid-18th century, Katowice developed into a village following the discovery of rich
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
reserves in the area. In the first half of the 19th century, intensive
industrialization
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
transformed local mills and farms into industrial
steelworks
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...
, mines,
foundries
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
and artisan workshops. The city has since reshaped its economy from a heavy industry-based one to professional services, education and healthcare. The entire metropolitan area is the 16th most economically powerful city by GDP in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
with an output amounting to $114.5 billion.
Katowice has been classified as a Gamma - global city by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network
The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershi ...
and is a centre of commerce, business, transportation, and culture in southern Poland, with numerous public companies headquartered in the city or in its suburbs including energy group Tauron and metal industry corporation
Fasing
FASING Plc. (or ''Mining Tools and Equipment Factories Capital Group FASING Plc.'') is a Polish multinational metal industry corporation. It is one of the largest chain manufacturers in the world, and is the largest producer of industrial cha ...
, important cultural institutions such as
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), is one of Poland's radio orchestra and premier musical institutions. It was founded in 1935 in Warsaw. In 1945 the orchestra was re-established in Katowice and since 2006 it has become a "Nati ...
, award-winning music festivals such as
Off Festival
OFF Festival is an alternative music festival series held annually since 2006. Until 2009 it was held at Słupna Park in Mysłowice, Poland in August and lasts four days. OFF Festival from 2010 takes place in Katowice in Dolina Trzech Stawow.
Th ...
Intel Extreme Masters
The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, currently host events in '' Counter-Strike: Global ...
, an
Esports
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
video game tournament. Katowice is also home to several institutions of higher learning, notably the
University of Silesia
The University of Silesia in Katowice ( pl, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, UŚ) is an autonomous state-run university in Silesia Province, Katowice, Poland.
The university offers higher education and research facilities. It offers undergradu ...
, the
Silesian University of Technology
The Silesian University of Technology (Polish name: Politechnika Śląska; ) is a university located in the Polish province of Silesia, with most of its facilities in the city of Gliwice. It was founded in 1945 by Polish professors of the Lwow P ...
and the
Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music
The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music is a school of music of university level in Katowice, in Poland. It is named for Karol Szymanowski.
Studies
The school offers full-time and part-time BA, MA and DA studies at two departments: Compositi ...
.
History
Before the industrial revolution
The area around Katowice, in
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...
, has been inhabited by ethnic
Silesian tribes The Silesian tribes ( pl, plemiona śląskie) is a term used to refer to tribes, or groups of West Slavs that lived in the territories of Silesia in the Early Middle Ages. The territory they lived on became part of Great Moravia in 875 (now mostly i ...
from its earliest documented history. While the name Katowice (''Katowicze'') is mentioned for the first time in 1598, other villages and settlements that would eventually become parts of modern Katowice have been established earlier, with ''Dąb'' being the oldest, mentioned in 1299 for the first time in a document issued by Duke
Casimir of Bytom
Casimir of Bytom ( pl, Kazimierz; 1253/57 – 10 March 1312) was a Duke of Opole during 1282–1284 (with his brother as co-ruler) and Duke of Bytom from 1284 until his death.
He was the second son of Władysław, Duke of Opole–Racibórz ...
. ''Bogucice'', ''Ligota'', ''Szopenice'' and ''Podlesie'' were all established in early 14th century. Aside from farming, people living in the area would also work in hammer mills: the first one, ''Kuźnica Bogucka'', is mentioned in 1397.
The area which would become Katowice was initially ruled by the Polish
Silesian Piast
The Silesian Piasts were the elder of four lines of the Polish Piast dynasty beginning with Władysław II the Exile (1105–1159), eldest son of Duke Bolesław III of Poland. By Bolesław's testament, Władysław was granted Silesia as his he ...
dynasty until its extinction. From 1327, the region was under administration of the
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...
under the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
. As part of the
Bohemian Crown
The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were a number of incorporated states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods connected by feudal relations under the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of Bo ...
, it was passed to the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in 1526. In 1742, along with most of
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 ...
, it was seized by
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
following the
First Silesian War
The First Silesian War (german: Erster Schlesischer Krieg, links=no) was a war between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1740 to 1742 and resulted in Prussia's seizing most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland) from Austria. T ...
. The two subsequent
Silesian Wars
The Silesian Wars (german: Schlesische Kriege, links=no) were three wars fought in the mid-18th century between Prussia (under King Frederick the Great) and Habsburg Austria (under Archduchess Maria Theresa) for control of the Central European ...
left the area severely depopulated and with economy in ruins. In 1838, Franz von Winckler bought Katowice from Karl Friedrich Lehmann and in 1841, he made it the headquarters of his estate.
Emergence as an industrial centre
On 3 October 1846, the works of the final stage of the Breslau- Myslowitz (''Wrocław-Mysłowice'') rail line ended, built and operated by the
Upper Silesian Railway
The Upper Silesian Railway (german: Oberschlesische Eisenbahn, OSE, pl, Kolej Górnośląska) was one of the earliest railways in Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with sma ...
(''Oberschlesische Eisenbahn'', OSE). It was opened by the Prussian king
Friedrich Wilhelm IV
Frederick William IV (german: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 17952 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 to his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to ...
. A year later, on 6 August 1847, the first train arrived at the new Katowice station.
The railway connection with major European cities (Katowice gained connections to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, among others, between 1847 and 1848) fostered economic and population growth. The population grew enough to erect the first
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
Catholic church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
two years later, on 11 November 1860. Katowice (then: ''Kattowitz'') gained
city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose.
Historically, city status ...
on 11 September 1865 in the Prussian
Province of Silesia
The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...
, by the act of the king Wilhelm I Hohenzollern.
The city flourished due to large mineral (especially coal) deposits in the area. Extensive city growth and prosperity depended on the coal mining and steel industries, which took off during the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...
incl.
Silesians
Silesians ( szl, Ślōnzŏki or Ślůnzoki; Silesian German: ''Schläsinger'' ''or'' ''Schläsier''; german: Schlesier; pl, Ślązacy; cz, Slezané) is a geographical term for the inhabitants of Silesia, a historical region in Central Europ ...
, and
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
. In 1884, 36 Jewish
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
delegates met here, forming the
Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion ( he, חובבי ציון, lit. ''hose who areLovers of Zion''), also known as Hibbat Zion ( he, חיבת ציון), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian ...
movement. Previously part of the Beuthen district, in 1873 it became the capital of the new Kattowitz district. On 1 April 1899, the city was separated from the district, becoming an
independent city
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
Historical precursors
In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
.
In 1882, the Upper Silesian Coal and Steelworks Company (''Oberschlesischer Berg- und Hüttenmännischer Verein'') moved its headquarters to Katowice, followed by creation of the Upper Silesian Coal Convention (''Oberschlesische Kohlen – Konvention'') in 1898. Civic development followed industrial development: in 1851, the first post office opens in Katowice, and in 1893 the current regional post office headquarters have been opened; in 1871 the first middle school was opened (later expanded to high school); in 1889, Katowice got a district court; in 1895, the city bath opened and regional headquarters of the
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...
has been established in the city; in 1907, the city theater (currently the
Silesian Theatre
Silesian Theatre ( pl, Teatr Śląski) dedicated to Stanisław Wyspiański is the largest theatre in Silesia. It is located on the market square in Katowice.
It was built as "German Theatre" in the years 1905–1907, from plans by German theatr ...
) opened.
Under the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the
Upper Silesia plebiscite
The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and Poland. The region was ethnically mixed with bot ...
was organised by the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
. Though Kattowitz proper voted 22,774 to remain in Germany and 3,900 for Poland, it was attached to Poland as the larger district voted 66,119 for Poland and 52,992 for Germany. Following the
Silesian Uprisings
The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...
of 1918–21 Katowice became part of the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
with some autonomy for the
Silesian Parliament
Silesian Parliament or Silesian Sejm ( pl, Sejm Śląski) was the governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939), an autonomous voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic between 1920 and 1945. It was elected in democratic elections and ...
as a constituency and the Silesian Voivodeship Council as the executive body. In 1924, the surrounding villages and towns were incorporated into Katowice, and the number of inhabitants increased to over 112,000, since then the number of Poles exceeded the number of Germans - throughout the interwar period, the number of Germans decreased (in 1925 they constituted 12% of the inhabitants of Katowice, and in 1939 only 6%, while Poles constituted 93%). At the end of the interwar period, the number of inhabitants exceeded 134,000.
In the years 1926–1933, Katowice and the Polish part of Upper Silesia were connected with
Gdynia
Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and ...
and Polish part of
Pomerania
Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...
in the
Polish Corridor
The Polish Corridor (german: Polnischer Korridor; pl, Pomorze, Polski Korytarz), also known as the Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia (Pomeranian Voivodeship, eastern ...
through the
Coal Trunk-Line
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when de ...
( pl, Magistrala Węglowa).
World War II
During the early stages of
World War II
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 opposin ...
and the Poland Campaign, Katowice was essentially abandoned by the
Polish Land Forces
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
, which had to position itself around
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
Einsatzkommando
During World War II, the Nazi German ' were a sub-group of the ' (mobile killing squads) – up to 3,000 men total – usually composed of 500–1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to exterminate Jews, Polish intellectu ...
1'' was stationed in the city, and its units were responsible for many crimes against Poles committed in the region.
Under
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
many of the city's historical and iconic monuments were destroyed, most notably the Great Katowice Synagogue, which was burned to the ground on 4 September 1939. This was followed by the alteration of street names and the introduction of strict rules. Additionally, the use of
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
in public conversations was banned. The German administration was also infamous for organising public executions of civilians and by the middle of 1941, most of the Polish and Jewish population was expelled. The Germans established and operated a Nazi prison in the city, and multiple
forced labour
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
camps within present-day city limits, including two camps solely for Poles (''
Polenlager
The ''Polenlager'' (, ''Polish Camps'') was a system of forced labor camps in Silesia that held Poles during the World War II Nazi German occupation of Poland. The prisoners, originally destined for deportation across the border to the new semi-c ...
''), four camps solely for Jews, two subcamps (E734, E750) of the
Stalag VIII-B
Stalag VIII-B was a German Army prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, later renumbered Stalag-344, located near the village of Lamsdorf (now Łambinowice) in Silesia. The camp initially occupied barracks built to house British and French pris ...
/344
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...
, and a
subcamp
Subcamps (german: KZ-Außenlager), also translated as satellite camps, were outlying detention centres (''Haftstätten'') that came under the command of a main concentration camp run by the SS in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Nazi ...
of the
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
. Eventually, Katowice was liberated by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
in January 1945. Significant parts of the downtown and inner suburbs were demolished during the occupation. This, however, cannot be compared with
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, where the level of destruction reached 85%. As a result, the authorities were able to preserve the central district in its prewar character.
Postwar period
The postwar period of Katowice was characterised by the time of heavy industry development in the Upper Silesian region, which helped the city in regaining its status as the most industrialised Polish city and a major administrative centre. As the city developed so briskly, the 1950s marked a significant increase in its population and an influx of migrants from the
Eastern Borderlands
Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic, it ...
, the so-called ''Kresy''. The city area began to quickly expand by incorporating the neighbouring communes and counties. However, the thriving industrial city also had a dark period in its short but meaningful history. Most notably, between 7 March 1953 and 10 December 1956, Katowice was called ''Stalinogród'' in honour of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
, leader of the
Soviet Union
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 national ...
. The change was brought upon by an issued decree of the State Council. The date of the alteration of the city name was neither a coincidence or accidental as it happened on the day of Stalin's death. In this way, the
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...
and the socialist authority wanted to pay tribute to the dictator. The new name never got accepted by the citizens and in 1956 the former Polish name was restored.
The following decades were more memorable in the history of Katowice. Regardless of its industrial significance, it started to become an important cultural and educational centre in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1968, the
University of Silesia in Katowice
The University of Silesia in Katowice ( pl, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, UŚ) is an autonomous state-run university in Silesia Province, Katowice, Poland.
The university offers higher education and research facilities. It offers undergrad ...
, the largest and most valued college in the area, was founded. Simultaneously the construction of large housing estates began to evolve. Furthermore, many representative structures were erected at that time, including the Silesian Insurgents' Monument (1967) and
Spodek
Spodek (meaning "saucer" in Polish) is a multipurpose arena complex in Katowice, Poland, opened on 9 May 1971. Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It was the largest indoor venue ...
(1971), which have become familiar landmarks and tourist sights. The 1960s and 1970s saw the evolution of
modernist architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
and functionalism. Katowice eventually developed into one of the most modernist post-war cities of Poland.
One of the most dramatic events in the history of the city occurred on 16 December 1981. It was then that 9 protesters died (7 were shot dead; 2 died from injury complications) and another 21 were wounded in the pacification of Wujek Coal Mine. The Special Platoon of the Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia (''ZOMO'') was responsible for the brutal handling of strikers protesting against
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (; 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military officer, politician and ''de facto'' leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party be ...
's declaration of
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
and the arrest of
Solidarity trade union
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
officials. On the 10th anniversary of the event, a memorial was unveiled by the President of Poland
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...
.
In 1990, the first democratic local elections that took place marked a new period in the city's history. The economy of Katowice has been transforming from the heavy industry of steel and coal mines into "one of the most attractive investment areas for modern economy branches in Central Europe". Recently, the city's efficient infrastructure, rapid progress in the overall development and an increase in office space has made Katowice a popular venue for conducting business. The Katowice Expo Centre (''Katowickie Centrum Wystawiennicze'') organises trade fairs or exhibitions and attracts investors from all over the world. In 2018, the city was the host of the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC
COP24
The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as the Katowice Climate Change Conference or COP24, was the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was held bet ...
). In 2022, the city hosted the 11th edition of the
World Urban Forum
The World Urban Forum (WUF) is the world’s premier conference on urban issues. It was established in 2001 by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, ...
, the world's most important conference on sustainable urbanization and development of cities.
Geography
Katowice encompasses an area of . The city is situated in the
Silesian Highlands
Silesian Upland or Silesian Highland ( pl, Wyżyna Śląska) is a highland located in Silesia and Lesser Poland, Poland.
Its highest point is the St. Anne Mountain (406 m).
See also
*Silesian Lowlands
*Silesian-Lusatian Lowlands
*Silesian ...
, about north of the
Silesian Beskids
Silesian Beskids (Polish: , Czech: , german: Schlesische Beskiden) is one of the Beskids mountain ranges in Outer Western Carpathians in southern Silesian Voivodeship, Poland and the eastern Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic.
Most of the ...
(part of the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...
).
Kłodnica
Kłodnica () is a river in the Upper Silesia region. It is about 75 km long and a right tributary of the Odra river.
Along Kłodnica's shore are Polish cities of Katowice, Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Ruda Śląska, Gliwice, and Zabrze.
There wa ...
and
Rawa
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (Persian:جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان, ''Jamiʿat-e Enqelābi-ye Zanān-e Afghānestān'', Pashto:د افغانستان د ښڅو انقلابی جمعیت) ...
(tributaries of the
Oder
The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows thr ...
and the
Vistula
The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...
respectively) are the largest rivers in Katowice, and the border between catchment areas of Oder and Vistula goes through the city. With a minimal elevation of and median elevation of above sea level, Katowice has the highest elevation among large cities in Poland.
Climate
Katowice has a temperate, ocean-moderated
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
: ''Dfb/Cfb''). The average temperature is 8.2 °Celsius ( in January and up to in July). Yearly rainfall averages at . Characteristic weak winds blow at about from the southwest, through the
Moravian Gate
The Moravian Gate ( cs, Moravská brána, pl, Brama Morawska, german: Mährische Pforte, sk, Moravská brána) is a geomorphological feature in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic and the Upper Silesia region in Poland. It is formed by the ...
.
Neighborhoods
Katowice has 22 officially recognized neighborhoods. Śródmieście, Osiedle Paderewskiego-Muchowiec, Zawodzie and Koszutka form the dense central urban core where most cultural and educational institutions, businesses and administrative buildings are located.
Most Northern and Eastern neighborhoods around the downtown core are more working-class and developed from worker's estates build around large industry such as coal mines, manufactures and steelworks. Each of these neighborhoods has its own dense commercial strip surrounded by mid-rise apartment buildings and some single-family homes.
Szopienice
Szopienice-Burowiec () is a district of Katowice, Poland, located in the north-eastern part of the city. It has an area of 8.47 km2 and in 2007 had 17,139 inhabitants.
The area of a district encompasses two historically important settlements ...
, located between downtown Katowice and Mysłowice, used to be a separate town until mid-1960s.
Nikiszowiec
Nikiszowiec ( German: ''Nikischschacht'') a part of an administrative district Janów-Nikiszowiec of Katowice city.
History
Initially it was coal miners' settlement of Giesche mine built on the land of Gieschewald manor (Giszowiec) between 1908 ...
, a former mine's town, has undergone strong
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...
in recent years, and emerged as a major tourist attraction in the region thanks to its unique architecture and art galleries.
Western and Southern neighborhoods (with the exception of Brynów-Załęska Hałda, which is a working-class neighborhood built around a coal mine) are more suburban in nature, concentrating the city's middle and upper middle classes.
Metropolitan area
Katowice lies in the centre of the largest conurbation in Poland, one of the largest in
the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
, numbering about 2.7 million. The
Katowice urban area
The Katowice urban area ( pl, Konurbacja katowicka, ), also known as the Upper Silesian urban area ( pl, Konurbacja górnośląska, ), is an urban area/ conurbation in southern Poland, centered on Katowice. It is located in the Silesian Voivo ...
consists of about 40 adjacent cities and towns, the whole
Silesian metropolitan area
The Upper Silesian metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava in Silesia and has around 5 million inhabitants. Located in the three administrati ...
(mostly within the
Upper Silesian Coal Basin
The Upper Silesian Coal Basin ( pl, Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe, GZW, cs, Hornoslezská uhelná pánev) is a coal basin in Silesia, in Poland and the Czech Republic.metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
has a population of 5,294,000. In 2006, Katowice and 14 adjacent cities united as the Upper Silesian Metropolis. Its population is 2 million and its area is 1,104 km2. In 2006–2007 the union planned to unite these cities in one city under the name "Silesia", but this proved unsuccessful.
The Katowice conurbation comprises settlements which have evolved because of the mining of metal ores, coal and raw rock materials. The establishment of mining and heavy industry which have developed for the past centuries has resulted in the unique character of the cityscape; its typical aspects are the red brick housing estates constructed for the poorer working class, factory chimneys, manufacturing plants, power stations and
quarries
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...
. The inhabitants of a large mining community like Katowice, and local administrations within the conurbation, which have only evolved due to mining, are a subject to overall decline after the liquidation of coal mines and factories. This is one of the reasons which led to the development of the service sector, including office spaces, shopping centres and tourism.
Demographics
The Polish Statistical Office estimates Katowice's population to be 292,774 as of 31 December 2020, with a population density of . There were 139,274 males and 153,500 females. Age breakdown of people in Katowice is: 12.9% 0–14 years old, 13.7% 15–29 years old, 23.8% 30–44 years old, 19.5% 45–59 years old, 20.1% 60–74 years old, and 9.9% 75 years and older.
Katowice is a centre of the
Upper Silesian metropolitan area
The Upper Silesian metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava in Silesia and has around 5 million inhabitants. Located in the three administrative ...
, with a population of approx. 5.3 million. This metropolitan area extends into the neighboring
Czechia
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Cz ...
, where the other centre is the city of
Ostrava
Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...
. 41 municipalities that constitute the core of the metropolitan area created the
Silesian Metropolis
The Metropolis GZM ( pl, Metropolia GZM, formally in Polish Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia) is a metropolitan unit composed of 41 contiguous municipalities in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland. The seat of the metropolitan council is ...
association, which has 2.3 million people as of 2019.
Historical population
Katowice's population grew very fast between 1845 and 1960, fueled by the expansion of heavy industry and administrative functions. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, the city grew by another 100,000 people, reaching a height of 368,621 in 1988. Since then, the collapse of heavy industry, emigration, and
suburbanization
Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urba ...
reversed the population development; Katowice lost approx. 75,000 people (20%) since the fall of communism in Poland.
Before World War II, Katowice was mainly inhabited by Poles and Germans. The 1905 Silesian demographic census has shown that Germans made up nearly 70-75% of the total population (with German Jews) and Poles constituted 25-30% of inhabitants of Katowice. After the plebiscite in Upper Silesia,
Silesian uprisings
The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...
and the incorporation of Katowice into Poland in 1922, and then the incorporation of several nearby villages and towns into the city, the number of inhabitants of Katowice increased significantly, but the number of Germans in Katowice fell to 12% in 1925 and to 6% in 1939 (most Germans left Poland, and areas with a Polish majority were incorporated). Thus, in 1939 Katowice was inhabited in 93% by Poles, 6% by Germans and 1% by Jews.
After the German aggression against Poland in 1939, some Poles were displaced from Katowice and settled with Germans, this process was interrupted during the occupation of Katowice by the Red Army in 1945, and then practically the entire German minority was displaced. After 1945, Polish exiles from
Kresy
Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic, it ...
(''Eastern Borderlands'') and Polish people from other work regions (including for work purposes) came to the city. Most pre-war citizens (excluding Poles) were forcibly expelled by the new authorities.
During the war, the Nazi occupant committed severe crimes against the local Roma and Jewish communities. Most of them were eventually killed or transported by cattle wagons to
concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
such as
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
for complete extermination. This led to a population drop between 1939 and 1945.
Ethnic diversity
Currently, Katowice is one of the more diverse cities in Poland. According to the 2011 census, Of 310,764 inhabitants, 81,500 (26.2%) declared a nationality other than Polish or Polish nationality and, at the same time, a different nationality (two nationalities can be declared in Polish censuses), with top other nationalities being the indigenous
Silesians
Silesians ( szl, Ślōnzŏki or Ślůnzoki; Silesian German: ''Schläsinger'' ''or'' ''Schläsier''; german: Schlesier; pl, Ślązacy; cz, Slezané) is a geographical term for the inhabitants of Silesia, a historical region in Central Europ ...
(78,838), but most of which declared both Silesian and Polish at the same time (possibility to declare two), and
(1,058). Additionally, 5,614 (1.8%) people either did not declare a nationality, or stated they have no nationality. When counting the declared two nationalities, 90.1% of the inhabitants of Katowice declared Polish nationality. Linguistic diversity is smaller in Katowice; 97.1% of people speak
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
at home, 2.9% speak only non-Polish language while 5.3% speak Polish and at least one other language. The most spoken minority languages include: Silesian (22,730, 7.3%),
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
(1,313, 0.4%) and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
(969, 0.3%).
Since the 2011 census, the international population have risen in Katowice with the post-2014 increase in immigration to Poland, with the primary nationality being
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
. According to the Polish Ministry of Development, Labor and Technology, there have been 20,527 foreigners (7% of official population figure) on a special worker permit for citizens of
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
,
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
in Katowice in 2020, 19,003 of them from Ukraine. By the end of 2021, this number has increased to 26,990, 23,207 of them from Ukraine. Additionally, as of June 2022, 11,568
refugees
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.
The 2011 census found out that, among population aged 25 and older, 26.7% of Katowice residents had a college degree, 35% had a high school degree but no college degree, 22.3% had trade school diploma, and the rest had primary or junior high school education only. In the 25-34 age group, college graduates share is 44.9%, and an additional 31.8% has a high school degree. According to
Eurostat
Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statis ...
data, Katowice and its surrounding Silesian region had one of the highest share of people who have attained at least an upper secondary level of education (more than 90%), and one of the lowest share of school dropouts in Europe (less than 5%).
There were 134,199 households in Katowice, as of the 2011 census, with an average household size of 2.3 people. 32.7% households were single-person households, 29.4% had two people, 20.5% had three people, 12.5% had four people and 4.9% had five people or more.
Katowice has the 3rd-highest wages in Poland, behind
Jastrzębie-Zdrój
Jastrzębie-Zdrój (; german: Bad Königsdorff-Jastrzemb, originally ''Jastrzemb'', cs, Lázně Jestřebí, szl, Jastrzymbie-Zdrōj or ''Jastrzymbje-Zdrůj'') is a city in south Poland with 86,632 inhabitants (2021). Its name comes from the Poli ...
and
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
only and slightly ahead of
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
, at PLN 6,176 a month. Poverty rate places Katowice on average with other big cities in Poland, at 4.09% of inhabitants eligible for welfare benefits as of 2019.
Religion
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
is the main religion in Katowice; as of the 2011 Polish census, 82.43% (256,166) people in Katowice declared to be Catholic. Other denominations with at least 1,000 worshippers include the Lutheran Church in Poland – 0.43% (1,336 people) and
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
– 0.42% (1,311 people). 4.47% (13,900) people in Katowice stated they are atheist, while 12% (37,029) people refused to state their religious affiliation. Other religions with presence and places of worship in the city include
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
,
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, and
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, as well as other
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Gliwice
Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional cap ...
and
Opole
Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ;
* Silesian:
** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole''
** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole''
* Silesian German: ''Uppeln''
* Czech: ''Opolí''
* Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...
, and around 1,477,900 Catholics. The Cathedral of Christ the King, constructed between 1927 and 1955 in a classicist style, is the largest cathedral in Poland. There are 36
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
basilicas
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...
), as well as 18
monasteries
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
. Katowice is also a seat of a diocesan Catholic seminary, as well as one of the
Order of Friars Minor
The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachi ...
. Katowice Archdiocese owns several media companies headquartered in Katowice: ''Księgarnia św. Jacka'', a Catholic publishing company, and ''Instytut Gość Media'', a multi-channeled media company that owns ''Radio eM'', a regional Catholic radio, and a few magazines.
Gość Niedzielny
''Gość Niedzielny'' (lit. Sunday Guest) is a Polish weekly Catholic news magazine. It is published in Katowice.
The magazine circulation in 2011 was 198,500 copies. The print and e-edition circulation of the weekly was 136,003 in August 2014.
...
, owned by ''Instytut Gość Media'' and published in Katowice, is currently the most-popular Catholic magazine in the country with approx. 120,000 copies sold weekly.
Katowice is also the seat of a Lutheran Diocese which covers
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...
,
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...
and Subcarpathian region and has 12,934 adherents as of 2019. Lutherans have two churches in Katowice, including a cathedral, which is the oldest church built originally in Katowice, completed on 29 September 1858. Historically, Lutheran population in Katowice was mostly
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, and with the expulsion of Germans from Poland after the Second World War, number of Lutherans dropped in Katowice.
Other denominations with churches or praying houses in Katowice include
Seventh Day Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...
,
Baptists
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
, Christ Church in Poland,
Pentecostals
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement
and other
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
groups.
Judaism
Judaism has historically been present in Katowice since at least 1702. First
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
, designed by a local architect Ignatz Grünfeld, was consecrated on 4 September 1862, while the Jewish cemetery was established in 1868. Dr. Jacob Cohn was the first
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
of Katowice, appointed to this function on 6 January 1872 and holding it until 1920s.
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
was strong in Katowice, and in 1884 the city was the place of the
Katowice Conference
The Katowice Conference (also known as the Kattowitz Conference)Israel Klausner "Kattowitz Conference." Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2007. ''Encyclopedia.com.'' 19 Feb. 2014 was a convention of Hovevei Zion groups from various countries held in Kattowi ...
, the first public Zionist meeting in history. On 12 September 1900, the Great Synagogue was opened.
Following World War I and subsequent creation of the
Polish state
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is ...
, most Katowice Jews, who identified with Germany, left the city and settled primarily in
Bytom
Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital ...
, a nearby city that was still part of Germany. They were partially replaced by Jews moving from the East, particularly the neighboring
Dąbrowa Basin
The Dąbrowa Basin (also, Dąbrowa Coal Basin) or Zagłębie Dąbrowskie () is a geographical and historical region in southern Poland. It forms western part of Lesser Poland, though it shares some cultural and historical features with the neighbo ...
region that had a large Jewish population. In 1931, 60% of 5,716 Jews in Katowice were recent immigrants from other parts of Poland. On 1 September 1939, Poland was attacked by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, and Katowice, a border city, surrendered on 3 September. The Great Synagogue was burned by the German army the same day, and in the following months, Katowice Jews were deported to
ghettos
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
in Dąbrowa Basin (primarily
Sosnowiec
Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Silesian Metropolis municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industria ...
and
Będzin
Będzin (; also ''Bendzin'' in English; german: Bendzin; yi, בענדין, Bendin) is a city in the Dąbrowa Basin, in southern Poland. It lies in the Silesian Highlands, on the Czarna Przemsza River (a tributary of the Vistula). Even though par ...
) or directly to various
concentration
In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', an ...
and
death camps
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
where most of them perished in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. After the war, around 1,500 Jews were living in Katowice, but most of them left Poland and emigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and other Western countries.
Currently, Katowice has one
Qahal
The ''qahal'' ( he, קהל) was a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society according to the Hebrew Bible. See column345-6 The Ashkenazi Jewish system of a self-governing community or kehila from medieval Christian Europe ...
with approximately 200 members. It owns houses of prayer in Katowice (along with a
kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
cafeteria) and nearby Gliwice, and the current rabbi is Yehoshua Ellis.
Other religions
There are two buddhist groups in Katowice:
Kwan Um School of Zen
The Kwan Um School of Zen (관음선종회) (KUSZ) is an international school of zen centers and groups founded in 1983 by Zen Master Seung Sahn. The school's international head temple is located at the Providence Zen Center in Cumberland, Rhode I ...
, first registered in 1982, and the Diamond Road of Karma Kagyu line association. Jehovah's Witnesses maintain 13 houses of prayer and one
Kingdom Hall
A Kingdom Hall is a place of worship used by Jehovah's Witnesses. The term was first suggested in 1935 by Joseph Franklin Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, for a building in Hawaii. Rutherford's reasoning was that these bu ...
in Katowice. Aside from Polish-language congregations, there is one for
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
speakers and one for
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
speakers.
Architecture and urban design
Unlike most other large Polish cities, Katowice did not originate as a medieval town, therefore it does not have an old town with a street layout and architectural styles characteristic to cities founded on
Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...
. Katowice's urban layout is a result of expansion and annexation of various towns, industrial worker estates, and villages.
City centre
Katowice city centre has an axis design, along the main railway line, developed by an industrialist Friedrich Grundman in mid-19th century. Most of the city centre in Katowice developed in late 19th and early 20th century, when it was part of the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
and had a German-speaking majority. As a result, architectural styles of that era are similar to those in other Prussian cities such as
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
or
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 ...
(then Breslau); primarily
renaissance revival
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 o ...
and
baroque revival
The Baroque Revival, also known as Neo-Baroque (or Second Empire architecture in France and Wilhelminism in Germany), was an architectural style of the late 19th century. The term is used to describe architecture and architectural sculptur ...
, with some buildings in
gothic revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
,
romanesque revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
, and
art nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
styles.
Interwar architecture
In 1922, Katowice and the eastern portion of Upper Silesia were reintegrated with reborn Poland, and an
autonomous Silesian Voivodeship
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
was established, with Katowice as its capital. This event has marked the beginning of a period of unprecedented architectural development in the city. Since most traditional styles, especially
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and gothic revival, were perceived as connected to imperial Germany by the new Polish authorities, all new development was to be built in, at first in the neoclassical, and later in functionalist/
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
style. The city, which needed to build administrative buildings for the new authorities and housing for people working in regional administration, began expansion southward creating one of the largest complexes of modern architecture in Poland, comparable to Warsaw and
Gdynia
Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and ...
(newly built port on the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
) only.
The modernist district is centered around the monumental
Silesian Parliament
Silesian Parliament or Silesian Sejm ( pl, Sejm Śląski) was the governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939), an autonomous voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic between 1920 and 1945. It was elected in democratic elections and ...
building (1923-1929), which architecture is mostly functionalist but still will neoclassical references on the facades. During World War II, the building became headquarters of the Reichsgau Oberschlesien and part of the interior was redesigned by
Albert Speer
Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he ...
,
Hitler's
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
favorite architect, to resemble the interior of the
Reich Chancellery
The Reich Chancellery (german: Reichskanzlei) was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared s ...
. The nearby Cathedral of Christ the King (1927-1955, with dome lowered by 34 meters compared to original design) is also neoclassical but with an ascetic interior (including a
tabernacle
According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...
and a golden mosaic funded by future pope,
Joseph Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
). Other buildings, designed in mid-to-late 1920s and 1930s, are mostly modernist or functionalist. A symbol of the city in the interwar period,
Drapacz Chmur
Drapacz Chmur ( en, Skyscraper) is a historical building in Katowice, Silesia, Poland. It was the second skyscraper built in post-World War I Poland. Finished in 1934 after five years of construction, it made pioneering Polish use of steel frame ...
(literally: ''The Skyscraper''), was the first skyscraper built in Poland after World War I, and the first building in the country to be based on a steel frame.
Post-war architecture
After
World War II
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 opposin ...
, Katowice again expected a period of rapid growth, particularly under the regional leadership of Marshall Jerzy Ziętek. Pałac Młodzieży (''Youth Palace'') became the first major new building completed in Katowice after the war, erected in the socrealist style with elements of
late modernism
In the visual arts, late modernism encompasses the overall production of most recent art made between the aftermath of World War II and the early years of the 21st century. The terminology often points to similarities between late modernism and ...
in 1949–1951. The largest development of the 1950s in Katowice was the expansion of the Koszutka neighborhood, also in the
socialist realist
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
style, in early 1950s.
Following the death of Stalin in 1956, and the end of socrealism, Jerzy Ziętek and city authorities commissioned a group of young architects and urbanists to create a project of the new urban design of Katowice. The collective, called ''Miastoprojekt Katowice'', came up with a design heavily influenced by Le Corbusier's ideas. The project was centered around a grand avenue (current ''Aleja Korfantego'') surrounded by simple, modern blocks and monuments, scattered in distance to each other according to modernist ideals. The most important buildings from that time include:
* Spodek Arena (1964–1971), widely considered the symbol of Katowice and ranked among the finest achievements of modern architecture in Poland; one of the first buildings in the world with a
tensegrity
Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usually ...
rooftop. Arena's unique design (resembling an UFO) comes from the need to accommodate different functions inside
*
Katowice Railway Station
Katowice railway station is a railway station in Katowice, Silesia, Poland, and the largest railway station in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region. Domestic and international trains connect at the station to most major cities in Europe; these ar ...
(1959–1972), considered to be the most outstanding example of brutalism in Poland, controversially demolished in 2010 and partially rebuilt as an addition to the Galeria Katowicka shopping centre.
* Superjednostka (1967–1972), a massive (187.5 meters length, 51 meters high) residential block heavily inspired by Le Corbusier's
Unite d'habitation
Unite may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
* ''Unite'' (A Friend in London album), 2013 album by Danish band A Friend in London
* ''Unite'' (Kool & the Gang album), 1993
* ''Unite'' (The O.C. Supertones album), 2005
Songs ...
in
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
* Osiedle Gwiazdy (1978–1985), a housing estate of eight 27-floor residential buildings on a plan resembling a star
* Osiedle Tysiąclecia (1961–1982, later expanded), a large housing estate connecting to the
Silesian Park
Silesian Park ( pl, Park Śląski) is a recreation complex in the center of the Upper-Silesian Metropolis in Chorzów in Upper Silesia, Poland. Silesian Park is managed by WPKiW S.A.
The area of the park is 620 hectares, twice as large as the ...
, built with modernist principles (separation of foot and automobile traffic, vast green spaces, self-sufficiency in terms of schools, basic shops and healthcare). Later expansion of the estate includes Kukurydze high-rises, a group of 26-floor high residential towers inspired by
Marina City
Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex in Chicago, Illinois, United States, North America, designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg. The multi-building complex opened between 1963 and 1967 and occupies almost an entire ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
* Stalexport Towers (1979–1982), twin office towers with 22 and 20 floors, showing influences of
postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...
Contemporary architecture
Following the collapse of communism in Poland and other Eastern Bloc countries, and the centrally-planned economy with it, Katowice's economy suffered a downturn, due to reduced significance of heavy industry. As a result, except for residential (primarily suburban) construction, not many buildings were built. One of the most significant buildings of the 1990s was the new branch of the
Silesian Library
Silesian Library ( pl, Biblioteka Śląska), is one of the most modern libraries in Poland, and is located in the south-western city of Katowice, Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within P ...
, in postmodernism style.
The situation changed in the early aughts, when several new notable developments were completed:
* Chorzowska 50 (1999–2001) – first modern, A-grade office building in Katowice; currently owned and occupied by
ING Bank Śląski
ING Bank Śląski SA (eng. ING Silesian Bank) (ING BSK) is a Polish bank based in Katowice. The majority owner is ING Group.
History
The bank was established as Bank Śląski in 1988 as a result of the separation from the National Bank of Poland. ...
*
Altus
Altus or ALTUS may refer to:
Music
*Alto, a musical term meaning second highest musical or vocal type
*Altus (voice type), a vocal type also known as countertenor
Places
* Altus, Arkansas, US
**Altus AVA, a wine-growing region near Altus, Arkans ...
, previously known as Uni Centrum (2001–2003) – for many years the highest skyscraper in Poland outside of Warsaw, at 125 meters (410 ft) high. Qubus Hotel, which was located in Altus, was one of the first four-star hotels in southern Poland.
* Silesia City Center (2003–2005), the flagship brownfield development of the era, built in place a defunct coal mine Gottwald. It remains one of the largest shopping centres in Poland, at 86,000 sq m (926,000 sq ft), and also includes a housing estate and a chapel.
* Dom z Ziemi Śląskiej (2001–2002), a modern suburban villa, nominated to
Mies van der Rohe Award
The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award is a prize given biennially by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, 'to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Eu ...
in 2002
Another wave of architectural revival came after Poland joined the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
in 2004. European
cohesion funds
The Cohesion Fund (CF), one of the five European Structural and Investment Funds of the European Union, provides support to Member States with a gross national income (GNI) per capita below 90% EU-27 average to strengthen the economic, social and ...
, along with private capital investment, flew into the city resulting in a number of architecturally interesting buildings and complexes, including:
* Strefa Kultury (Zone of Culture, a brownfield urban redevelopment in downtown Katowice):
** National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) building (2012–2014) contains two concert halls (for an audience of 1,800 or 300). Nominated to
Mies van der Rohe Award
The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award is a prize given biennially by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, 'to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Eu ...
in 2014, first prize in European Commercial Property Awards.
** Katowice International Conference Centre (2012–2015), the largest conference centre in Poland (capacity up to 12,000 people), connected to the Spodek Arena. The design of the centre, with a distinct canyon going through it in order to remove any obstruction from view of Spodek, has been hailed and the building was nominated to
Mies van der Rohe award
The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award is a prize given biennially by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, 'to acknowledge and reward quality architectural production in Eu ...
in 2017
** New Silesian Museum (2011–2013) located in place of a former coal mine, most of the museum is located underground, with only glass cubes that provide daylight, visible above ground. Shortlisted for Mies van der Rohe award in 2015.
* CINiBA (2009–2011) – academic library of the
University of Silesia
The University of Silesia in Katowice ( pl, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, UŚ) is an autonomous state-run university in Silesia Province, Katowice, Poland.
The university offers higher education and research facilities. It offers undergradu ...
Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School
The Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School (also known as ''Katowice Film School'') is a polish film and television school established in 1978 and based in Katowice, Poland. It is a full-time film school and offers MA courses in Directing, Cinematogra ...
at the
University of Silesia
The University of Silesia in Katowice ( pl, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, UŚ) is an autonomous state-run university in Silesia Province, Katowice, Poland.
The university offers higher education and research facilities. It offers undergradu ...
(2014–2017) – awarded with Wienerberger Brick Award in 2020, shortlisted to Mies van der Rohe award in 2019. Located in a decayed neighborhood, the building aims at kick-starting an urban renewal process there.
* KTW Towers (2018–2022), the taller tower, which is still under construction, is expected to become the tallest building in Katowice, at 135 meters (443 ft), and one of the tallest in Poland.
Tourist attractions
*
Market square
The market square (or sometimes, the market place) is a Town square, square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world.Warszawska, Teatralna, Dyrekcyjna, Staromiejska, Dworcowa, św. Jana, Pocztowa, Wawelska, 3 Maja, Stawowa, Mielęckiego, Starowiejska and Mickiewicza, the so-called "Great Market Square of Katowice" or "Old town of Katowice"—many historic (monument) buildings. This is a group of functional-architectural. On the market square and most of the above-mentioned streets are prohibitions or restrictions on cars. Streets: Staromiejska, Dyrekcyjna, Wawelska, Stawowa and Warszawska is lined decorative
cobblestone
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings.
Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...
creating a
pedestrian zone
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...
. The authority plans to Katowice—Quarter streets: św. Jana, Dworcowa, Mariacka, Mielęckiego, Stanisława and Starowiejska is to become so "small market square".
*
Nikiszowiec
Nikiszowiec ( German: ''Nikischschacht'') a part of an administrative district Janów-Nikiszowiec of Katowice city.
History
Initially it was coal miners' settlement of Giesche mine built on the land of Gieschewald manor (Giszowiec) between 1908 ...
Drapacz Chmur
Drapacz Chmur ( en, Skyscraper) is a historical building in Katowice, Silesia, Poland. It was the second skyscraper built in post-World War I Poland. Finished in 1934 after five years of construction, it made pioneering Polish use of steel frame ...
, one of the first skyscrapers in Europe
*
Silesian Parliament
Silesian Parliament or Silesian Sejm ( pl, Sejm Śląski) was the governing body of the Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939), an autonomous voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic between 1920 and 1945. It was elected in democratic elections and ...
, built in 1925–1929. For a very long time, it was the biggest structure in Poland
*Modernist old town
*
Spodek
Spodek (meaning "saucer" in Polish) is a multipurpose arena complex in Katowice, Poland, opened on 9 May 1971. Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It was the largest indoor venue ...
(a large
sports centre
A leisure centre in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia (also called aquatic centres), Singapore and Canada is a purpose-built building or site, usually owned and operated by the city, borough council or municipal district council, where people ...
/
concert hall
A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats.
This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...
, whose name translates as the 'saucer', from its distinctive shape resembling a UFO flying saucer)
* Silesian Insurgents Monument (Polish: ''Pomnik Powstańców Śląskich''), the largest and heaviest monument in Poland. It is a harmonious combination of architecture and sculpture with appropriate symbolism: the wings symbolize the three
Silesian Uprisings
The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...
(1920 – 1921) while the names of places that were battlefields are etched on the vertical slopes. The monument, which was funded by the people of Warsaw for Upper Silesia, is considered Katowice's landmark.
*
Silesian Theater
Silesian Theatre ( pl, Teatr Śląski) dedicated to Stanisław Wyspiański is the largest theatre in Silesia. It is located on the market square in Katowice.
It was built as "German Theatre" in the years 1905–1907, from plans by German theatr ...
, built in 1907
*
Rialto Cinetheater
The Rialto is a central area of Venice, Italy, in the ''sestiere'' of San Polo. It is, and has been for many centuries, the financial and commercial heart of the city. Rialto is known for its prominent Market (place), markets as well as for the m ...
, built in 1912
*
Silesian Museum
Silesian Museum in Katowice ( pl, Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach) is a museum in the City of Katowice, Poland.
History
The museum was founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. In the inte ...
, built in 1899
*
Old train station in Katowice
Katowice historic train station was the main railway station of Katowice, in the Silesia region of what is now Poland. Built in 1859 and reconstructed and expanded several times, it was judged obsolete after World War II, and in 1972 decommissi ...
, built in 1906
*The
Goldstein Palace
The Pałac Goldsteinów or ''Goldstein Palace'' is neo-renaissance palace, which was built by two brothers, Abraham and Joseph Goldstein. It is located in Katowice, Silesia, Poland, at the west end of the city centre, at .
The palace is represen ...
Parachute Tower
A parachute tower is a tower used for parachute training, often by members of a military paratroop unit. A mixture of tower heights are used at different stages of training. Trainees typically begin on towers around in height in fall-arrest harn ...
, a tall lattice tower was built in 1937 for training parachutists. It was used in the first days of World War II and is the only parachute tower in Poland.
Other:
*
Franciscan Monastery in Panewniki
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
Antun Augustinčić
Antun Augustinčić (4 May 1900 – 10 May 1979) was a Croatian sculptor active in Yugoslavia and the United States. Along with Ivan Meštrović and Frano Kršinić he is considered one of the three most important Croatian sculptors of the 20th ...
, 1937–39. It was commissioned in 1936 but brought to Poland in 1991
*
Monopol Hotel
The Monopol Hotel is a historic five-star hotel located at Helena Modrzejewska Street, Wrocław, Lower Silesia, Poland.
History
It was built in 1892 in what was then Breslau, Germany, in Art Nouveau/ Neo-Baroque style on the site of the graveya ...
square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...
/
roundabout
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
, reconstructed recently, with the semi-circular Galeria Rondo Sztuki in the centre.
*The
Altus Skyscraper
Altus (also known as ''Uni Centrum'' or ''Business Center 2000'') is a skyscraper in Katowice, Silesia, Poland.
The construction started in 2001 and finished in 2003. The building is 125 m high and rises 30 floors above ground. Total floor area i ...
Globalization and World Cities Research Network
The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershi ...
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
by GDP, with an output amounting to $114.5 billion. The city is one of the major industrial, commerce and financial hubs of Poland and has successfully transformed its economy from heavy industry-based to knowledge-based one.
Katowice has a diversified economy with one of the strongest job markets in Poland. 171,839 Katowice residents are employed as of 2019, and 113,830 commute to work in the city - making Katowice second only to Warsaw in terms of commuter inflows in the country. Unemployment rate is extremely low at 1.8%, as of June 2022. The broader Katowice subregion ( NUTS-3 level in European statistics) which includes neighboring towns of Chorzów, Siemianowice Śląskie, Mysłowice, Ruda Śląska, and Świętochłowice had 377,600 employed persons as of 2019, of which 22% in industry, 6% in construction, 23% in retail and services, 5% in information and communication, 5% in finance and insurance, 2% in real estate, 10% in professional services and science, 23% in education, health and administration and 4% in arts and entertainment.
As of 2018, Katowice had the 10th highest salaries in Poland, at PLN 5,698.98 per month, on average.
Business and commerce
Katowice is a large business, convention and
trade fair
A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...
centre. Katowice is headquarters to 18 public companies traded on the
Warsaw Stock Exchange
The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), pl, Giełda Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie, is a stock exchange in Warsaw, Poland. It has a market capitalization of PLN 1.05 trillion (EUR 232 billion; as of December 23, 2020).
The WSE is a member of th ...
, with total market value of PLN 24.2 billion as of 2016, with the largest being
ING Bank Śląski
ING Bank Śląski SA (eng. ING Silesian Bank) (ING BSK) is a Polish bank based in Katowice. The majority owner is ING Group.
History
The bank was established as Bank Śląski in 1988 as a result of the separation from the National Bank of Poland. ...
. As of 2019, 38 companies from Katowice make the list of 2000 largest enterprises in Poland according to
Rzeczpospolita
() is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...
, with largest one being Tauron Polska Energia S.A. (10th place). As of 2012, 44,050 companies were registered in Katowice, almost 10% of all companies in the
Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia ('), with Katowice serving as its capital.
Despite the Silesian ...
.
Retail is a very strong sector in Katowice. The city is home to several shopping centres and department stores, with Silesia City Center and Galeria Katowicka being the largest ones. Silesia City Center, located on a
brownfield
In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...
in place of a former coal mine, is the largest shopping centre in Poland when number of stores is considered (310 different brands) and 7th largest in terms of retail space for rent (86,000 sq. m). It is also a part of a broader revitalization complex, that features an apartment complex and office space (under construction as of October 2020) as well.
Katowice is also the seat of Katowice
Special Economic Zone
A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...
(Katowicka Specjalna Strefa Ekonomiczna).
Industry
Since its creation, Katowice's development was tightly connected to heavy industry, especially coal mining, steelworks and machine production. In 1931, 49.5% of inhabitants worked in industry, and 12.5% in coal mining alone. In 1989 industry accounted for 36% of all jobs in the city (112,000 employees). As of 2018, 34,294 people worked in industry in Katowice, 20.4% of total, below the national average.
The first reported coal mine in Katowice (''Murcki'' coal mine) was established in 1740, and in 1769 construction on ''Emanuelssegen'' mine started. As the demand for coal kept rising in the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
, further mines were opened: ''Beata'' (1801), ''Ferdinand'' (1823), ''Kleofas'' (1845). Later in 19th and early 20th century additional mines were opened: ''Katowice'', ''Wujek'', ''Eminenz'' (later renamed ''Gottwald'' and merged with ''Kleofas''), ''Wieczorek'', ''Boże Dary'', ''Staszic'' and renewed ''Murcki''. Currently only one (''Murcki-Staszic'') remains in operation. Katowice is also the seat of Polska Grupa Górnicza, the largest coal mining corporation in Europe. Metallurgy was another important part of Katowice's economy. In 1863 a dozen zinc metallurgy facilities were reported in Katowice, with ''Wilhelmina'' (founded in 1834) being the largest. In early 1900s, ''Wilhelmina'' (later renamed ''Huta Metali Niezależnych Szopienice'') was enlarged and became the largest Silesian producer of
non-ferrous metal
In metallurgy, non-ferrous metals are metals or alloys that do not contain iron (allotropes of iron, ferrite, and so on) in appreciable amounts.
Generally more costly than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable proper ...
s and world's largest producer of
cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...
. Two major steelworks existed in the city: ''Huta Baildon'', established in 1823 by the Scottish engineer and industrialist
John Baildon
John Baildon (11 December 1772 – 7 August 1846) was a Scotland, Scottish pioneer in metallurgy in continental Europe.
Baildon was born in Larbert, Stirlingshire. In 1793, he came to Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian Province of Silesia, Silesia (i ...
(declared bankruptcy in 2001), and ''Huta Ferrum'', established in 1874 and operating to this date in limited capacity.
Culture
A vibrant and progressive artistic communities, particularly around musical arts, make Katowice one of the leading cultural spots in Poland. Since mid-2000s, Katowice has established a strategy to redevelop the post-industrial areas using culture - the pinnacle of which was a massive development on the site of a former coal mine known as Strefa Kultury (the "Zone of Culture"), where numerous cultural and convention institutions are located.
Performing arts
Katowice's status as the UNESCO City of Music, designated when Katowice joined
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
Creative Cities Network
The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is a project of UNESCO launched in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities which recognized creativity as a major factor in their urban development.Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music
The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music is a school of music of university level in Katowice, in Poland. It is named for Karol Szymanowski.
Studies
The school offers full-time and part-time BA, MA and DA studies at two departments: Compositi ...
, whose faculty and graduates created the nationally important informal group called the Silesian school of composers.
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), is one of Poland's radio orchestra and premier musical institutions. It was founded in 1935 in Warsaw. In 1945 the orchestra was re-established in Katowice and since 2006 it has become a "Nati ...
has been located in Katowice since 1945 and has gotten a new internationally acclaimed concert hall in 2014, built on a site of a former coal mine near Katowice's city center. The
Silesian Philharmonic
The Filharmonia Śląska w Katowicach ( en, Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice) is a music institution in Katowice, Silesia, Poland. The Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice was founded in 1945. The first concert of the orchestra took place on 26 of M ...
also has its seat in Katowice. The city is a venue for numerous classical concerts and festivals, such as: the International Festival of Young Music Competition Laureates,
Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors
The Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors (Polish language, Polish: ''Międzynarodowy Konkurs Dyrygentów im. Grzegorza Fitelberga'') is one of Poland's premier conducting competitions. Named in honour of Grzegorz Fitelberg ( ...
, Chamber Music Festival, Ars Cameralis Festival and Katowice's opera, operettas and most of all ballet.
There are currently 6 theater buildings in Katowice, and some theater groups without a permanent location. Teatr Śląski is the oldest still-functioning theater in Katowice, first opened for audience in 1907 and located on the main square. It was the first theater to give plays in Silesian dialect of Polish. Every first Monday of the month, the
Silesian Opera
Silesian Opera in Bytom ( pl, Opera Śląska w Bytomiu) is an opera company in Bytom, Silesia, Poland, that was founded in 1945. Its home is the former City Theatre, designed by architect Albert Bohm,
that was built in Neoclassical style between ...
singers from nearby
Bytom
Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capital ...
give a performance there, as Katowice does not have an opera house of its own. Teatr Ateneum is an important puppetry theater, while Teatr Korez was one of the first non-public theaters in post-war Poland.
Katowice is home to many nationally and internationally renowned popular music festivals. Rawa Blues, named after a stream that passes through Katowice's city center, is one of the largest blues festivals in Europe. Electronic music's Mayday Festival takes place every year in early November and is a sister event to its namesake in
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
.
OFF Festival
OFF Festival is an alternative music festival series held annually since 2006. Until 2009 it was held at Słupna Park in Mysłowice, Poland in August and lasts four days. OFF Festival from 2010 takes place in Katowice in Dolina Trzech Stawow.
Th ...
, dedicated to alternative music, moved to Katowice in 2010 and has been held every August. Tauron Nowa Muzyka festival, oriented more towards dance and techno has been named one of the major European festivals to attend. Other music festivals, such as the Silesian Jazz Festival, KatoHej (dedicated to chants and touristic music), and Gardens of Sound, are also organized. In 2019, 475,806 people attended various big cultural events such as concerts and festivals, which gave the city the third place in Poland, behind Warsaw and Kraków. Nearby
Chorzów
Chorzów ( ; ; german: link=no, Königshütte ; szl, Chorzōw) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population ...
, with the
Silesian Stadium Silesian as an adjective can mean anything from or related to Silesia. As a noun, it refers to an article, item, or person of or from Silesia.
Silesian may also refer to:
People and languages
*Silesians, inhabitants of Silesia, either a West Sla ...
right across the street from Katowice, gathered another 319,783 attendees.
Museums and art galleries
The
Silesian Museum
Silesian Museum in Katowice ( pl, Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach) is a museum in the City of Katowice, Poland.
History
The museum was founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. In the inte ...
is the largest and most-important museum in Katowice. It originally opened in 1929, and its radically modern,
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
-style new building was demolished immediately after the Nazis seized Katowice in 1939, considering it too degenerate and too Polish. The museum has been placed in temporary buildings with its collections dispersed until 2015, when a new, mostly underground building has been constructed in the Zone of Culture. The museum exhibits works by famous and renowned Polish artists like
Józef Chełmoński
Józef Marian Chełmoński (November 7, 1849 – April 6, 1914) was a Polish painter of the realist school with roots in the historical and social context of the late Romantic period in partitioned Poland. He is famous for monumental paint ...
,
Artur Grottger
Artur Grottger (11 November 1837 – 13 December 1867) was a Polish Romantic painter and graphic artist, one of the most prominent artists of the mid 19th century under the foreign partitions of Poland, despite a life cut short by incurable ill ...
,
Tadeusz Makowski
Tadeusz Makowski (29 January 1882, Oświęcim - 1 November 1932, Paris) was a Polish painter who worked in France and was associated with the School of Paris.
Biography
From 1902 to 1906, he studied classical philology at the Jagiellonian Univ ...
,
Jacek Malczewski
Jacek Malczewski (; 15 July 1854 – 8 October 1929) was a Polish symbolist painter who is one of the most revered painters of Poland, associated with the patriotic Young Poland movement following a century of Partitions. He is regarded as the f ...
,
Jan Matejko
Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Poles, Polish painting, painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works includ ...
,
Józef Mehoffer
Józef Mehoffer (19 March 1869 – 8 July 1946) was a Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time.
Life
Mehoffer was born in Ropczyce, ...
and
Stanisław Wyspiański
Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within ...
. It is also well known for its collection of
naïve art
Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). When this aesthetic is ...
paintings, including local coal miners from Katowice area. The museum has a number of sketches of globally recognizable artists such as
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
and
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
.
The City History Museum of Katowice exhibitions include: immersive typical urban apartments from early 20th century,
naïve art
Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). When this aesthetic is ...
paintings from local artists and the history of Katowice from a village to an industrial center. Other museums in Katowice include Museum of the History of Computers and Informatics and the Museum of Smallest Books in the World.
The BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice, established in 1949, is a notable institution concerning the
Contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...
s. Every three years, it is responsible for organizing the Polish Graphic Art Triennial. Several other galleries feature exhibitions of the works by artists from abroad along with film screenings, workshops for children and public fairs.
Media
:''TV stations:''
*
TVP 3 Katowice
TVP3 Katowice a.k.a. TV Katowice also Television Katowice is one of the regional branches of the Telewizja Polska, TVP, Poland's public television broadcaster. It serves the entire Silesian Voivodeship with particular dedication to the Metropolita ...
TVN24
TVN24 is a Polish 24-hour commercial news channel, launched on 9 August 2001. Being a part of the TVN Network, TVN24 has been owned since July 2017 by US-based media company Warner Bros. Discovery. It gained broader popularity after the Septem ...
– department Katowice (TVN24 – oddział Katowice)
:''radio stations:''
*
Radio Katowice
Polish Radio Katowice ( pl, Polskie Radio Katowice) is the largest regional station of Polish Radio. It was created in 1927. It can be received in the Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ...
*
Antyradio
Antyradio is a Polish radio network broadcasting all genres of rock music, although mostly broadcasting contemporary rock hits. The current owner of the network is Eurozet.
Antyradio started broadcasting on 1 June 2005.
''Managers:''
* Marc ...
:''newspapers:''
*
Dziennik Zachodni
Dziennik Zachodni (Western Daily, DZ) is a regional Polish newspaper distributed in Upper Silesia. Its headquarters is located in the city of Sosnowiec. Established in February 1945 by Stanisław Ziemba, it was initially a state-held daily. Take ...
*
Gazeta Wyborcza
''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the g ...
– Katowice section
*
Fakt
''Fakt'' (Polish for "fact") is a Polish tabloid daily newspaper published in Warsaw, Poland, by Ringier Axel Springer Polska (a Swiss-German joint-venture subsidiary of Axel Springer SE and Ringier), and is one of the best-selling papers in Pola ...
– Katowice section
*
Metro International
Metro International is a Swedish global media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the ''Metro'' newspapers. Metro International's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 41 percent since launch of the first news ...
– Katowice
*Nowy Przegląd Katowicki
Festivals and events
*
Rawa Blues Festiwal
Rawa Blues Festival (pronounced ''rava'') is the world's largest indoor blues festival. The festival was named after the Rawa River, which flows through the city of Katowice in Poland. The first edition was held in April 1981.
Among the highlig ...
–
Spodek
Spodek (meaning "saucer" in Polish) is a multipurpose arena complex in Katowice, Poland, opened on 9 May 1971. Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It was the largest indoor venue ...
*
Metalmania
Metalmania was a heavy metal music, heavy metal music festival in Central Europe. It was held annually from 1986 to 2009, and returned in 2017. The 2008 event was held on the 8th of March at Spodek in Katowice, Poland.
Metalmania 1986
First Day: ...
–
Spodek
Spodek (meaning "saucer" in Polish) is a multipurpose arena complex in Katowice, Poland, opened on 9 May 1971. Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It was the largest indoor venue ...
*
Off Festival
OFF Festival is an alternative music festival series held annually since 2006. Until 2009 it was held at Słupna Park in Mysłowice, Poland in August and lasts four days. OFF Festival from 2010 takes place in Katowice in Dolina Trzech Stawow.
Th ...
*
Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...
–
Spodek
Spodek (meaning "saucer" in Polish) is a multipurpose arena complex in Katowice, Poland, opened on 9 May 1971. Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It was the largest indoor venue ...
*International Competition of Conductors by Fitelberg
*
International Cycling Film Festival
The International Cycling Film Festival ( pl, Międzynarodowy Festiwal Filmów Rowerowych, german: Internationales Festival des Fahrrad-Films) is an independent, not-for-profit film festival held annually in Germany, in Poland, in Kosovo and in t ...
*International Festival of Military Orchestras
*International Exhibition of
Graphic arts
A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.
"Intergrafia"
*
Esports
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
Intel Extreme Masters
The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, currently host events in '' Counter-Strike: Global ...
World Championship, one of the biggest esports events in the world
*Poland hosted the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC
COP24
The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as the Katowice Climate Change Conference or COP24, was the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was held bet ...
), with the meeting held in Katowice.
Parks and squares
:''parks:''
*
Silesian Park
Silesian Park ( pl, Park Śląski) is a recreation complex in the center of the Upper-Silesian Metropolis in Chorzów in Upper Silesia, Poland. Silesian Park is managed by WPKiW S.A.
The area of the park is 620 hectares, twice as large as the ...
(Wojewódzki Park Kultury i Wypoczynku)
*
Kościuszko Park
The Kosciuszko Park, which has existed since 1925, is one of the most famous and frequented parks in Katowice, Poland. It is situated at the street of the same name.
Its foundation dates back to 1888 when a municipal park was founded on the 6 ...
Valley of Three Ponds
Valley of Three Ponds pl, Dolina Trzech Stawów) is a large park and wooden area in the southern part of the city of Katowice, Poland. The name comes from the existence of three large ponds in the park area.
Parks in Katowice
Reservoirs in ...
(Dolina Trzech Stawów)
*
Zadole Park
The Zadole Park is a park in Zadole, a part of the city of Katowice in Metropolis GZM. The park features an amphitheater for 800 persons, a swimming-pool complex, a cafe and a playground for children and walking alleys. In 1906–1914 it was a pla ...
:''squares:''
*
Katowice market square
Market Square in Katowice is a central feature of the Śródmieście district in the city of Katowice, Poland. This market square, the main one in the city, dates to the late 19th century. It has been rebuilt several times, with the latest round ...
(Rynek w Katowicach)
*Freedom Square (Plac Wolności)
*Andrzej Square (Plac Andrzeja)
*Miarka Square (Plac Miarki)
*Council of Europe Square (Plac Rady Europy)
*Alfred Square (Plac Alfreda)
*A. Budniok Square (Plac A. Brudnioka)
*J. Londzin Square (Plac J. Londzina)
*A. Hlond Square (Plac A. Hlonda)
Nature reserves and ecological areas
*Nature reserve Las Murckowski
*Nature reserve Ochojec
*Szopienice-Borki
*Źródła Kłodnicy
*Staw Grunfeld
*Stawy Na Tysiącleciu
*Płone Bagno
Education
Katowice is a large scientific centre. It has over 20 schools of higher education, at which over 100,000 people study.
*
University of Silesia in Katowice
The University of Silesia in Katowice ( pl, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, UŚ) is an autonomous state-run university in Silesia Province, Katowice, Poland.
The university offers higher education and research facilities. It offers undergrad ...
*
University of Economics in Katowice
University of Economics in Katowice (former Karol Adamiecki Academy of Economics in Katowice) is a public higher education institution in Katowice, Poland.
History
The University of Economics in Katowice was founded in December 1936 (by t ...
Silesian University of Technology
The Silesian University of Technology (Polish name: Politechnika Śląska; ) is a university located in the Polish province of Silesia, with most of its facilities in the city of Gliwice. It was founded in 1945 by Polish professors of the Lwow P ...
*
University of Social Sciences and Humanities
, latin_name =
, former_names = Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej
, president =
, established = 1996
, type = Private
, founder = Piotr Voelkel, Andrzej Eliasz, Zbigniew Pietrasiński and Janusz Reykowski
, rector = Associate Profe ...
*
Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music
The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music is a school of music of university level in Katowice, in Poland. It is named for Karol Szymanowski.
Studies
The school offers full-time and part-time BA, MA and DA studies at two departments: Compositi ...
*
Akademia Lospuma Training Institute
Akademia Lospuma Training Institute is a higher education institution originally located in Jaworzno, Poland. The Institute is the largest funding organisation in Poland supporting the international exchange of students and scholars. Since its es ...
*
Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
Higher Silesian Seminary in Katowice
Higher may refer to:
Music
* The Higher, a 2002–2012 American pop rock band
Albums
* ''Higher'' (Ala Boratyn album) or the title song, 2007
* ''Higher'' (Ezio album) or the title song, 2000
* ''Higher'' (Harem Scarem album) or the title song ...
There are also:
*around 80
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
s
*around 35 gimnasia
*around 55 primary schools
*around 50
libraries
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
, including the
Silesian Library
Silesian Library ( pl, Biblioteka Śląska), is one of the most modern libraries in Poland, and is located in the south-western city of Katowice, Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within P ...
Transportation
Public transportation
The public
transportation system
A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow.
Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, ...
of the Katowice consists of commuter and long-distance trains, trams, buses and city bikes. Around 38 percent of people in Katowice use trams and buses on their daily commute (40 percent if counted those using the park-and-ride facilities), 10 percent walk, 4 percent cycle, and 2 percent takes the train, according to a 2020 report. There are also three park-and-ride centers in Katowice with over 1,000 parking spaces.
Tram and bus lines
The transit authority of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, Zarząd Transportu Metropolitalnego (ZTM), operates the city trams and buses.
The Silesian Interurban tram system is one of the largest and oldest in Europe, in operation since 1894 and covering over 200 km of rails, including 62 km in Katowice proper. The network in Katowice is mostly located in the northern part of the city has a star-like shape, with most lines converging on the Rynek square and expanding to all directions. There are 13 tram lines in Katowice, all but 2 expanding into neighboring cities. 116 tram stops are located in Katowice proper, as of 2020. A new tram line is planned to the southern suburbs since 2016.
In addition to trams, bus lines are organized by ZTM. There are currently 63 regular lines in Katowice (including night lines), and additional 10 express metropolitan lines, with 609 bus stops as of 2020. ZTM organizes a bus line to their airport as well, which runs every 30 minutes between 4am and 9:30pm and every hour at night.
Commuter trains
Koleje Śląskie
Koleje Śląskie (Polish for Silesian Railways; KŚ) is a regional rail operator in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland.
The company was founded in 2010 and is fully owned by the local government. It started servicing in October 2011.
Lines
...
(Silesian Railways), a regional railway authority, connects Katowice with its suburbs and other major cities in Silesian and Lesser Poland voivodeships:
Gliwice
Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional cap ...
,
Rybnik
Rybnik (Polish pronunciation: ; szl, Rybńik) is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, around 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Katowice, the region's capital, and around 19 km (11 miles) from the Czech border. It is on ...
,
Częstochowa
Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admin ...
,
Bielsko-Biała
Bielsko-Biała (; cs, Bílsko-Bělá, german: Bielitz-Biala, szl, Bjylsko-Bjoło) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 168,319 as of December 2021, making it the 22nd largest city in Poland, and an area of . It is a ...
,
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, and
Oświęcim
Oświęcim (; german: Auschwitz ; yi, אָשפּיצין, Oshpitzin) is a city in the Lesser Poland ( pl, Małopolska) province of southern Poland, situated southeast of Katowice, near the confluence of the Vistula (''Wisła'') and Soła rive ...
, among others. It operates 9 regular lines and 1 tourist weekend line (to
Zakopane
Zakopane ( Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been par ...
).
Polregio
Polregio (formerly ''Przewozy Regionalne'') is a train operator in Poland, responsible for local and interregional passenger transportation. Each day it runs approximately 3,000 regional trains. In 2002 it carried 215 million passengers.
The ...
operates commuter trains from Katowice to cities and towns in
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...
Trzebinia
Trzebinia (; yi, טשעבין ''Tchebin'') is a town in Chrzanów County, Lesser Poland, Poland with an Orlen oil refinery and a major rail junction of the Kraków - Katowice line, with connections to Oświęcim and Spytkowice. The town became p ...
,
Olkusz
Olkusz ( yi, עלקיש ''Elkish'', german: 1941-45 Ilkenau) is a town in southern Poland with 36,607 inhabitants (2014). Situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Katowice Voivodeship (1975–1998), it is the capital ...
, and
Kielce
Kielce (, yi, קעלץ, Keltz) is a city in southern Poland, and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the bank ...
, among others.
Long-haul trains
Katowice is the main railway hub in southern Poland. Katowice's main railway station is the fifth-busiest train station in Poland as of 2019 (and third outside Warsaw), with 17.6 million passengers and growing 47 percent since 2015. 16% of the passengers travelled on
PKP Intercity
PKP Intercity is a company of PKP Group responsible for long-distance passenger transport. It runs about 350 trains daily, connecting mainly large agglomerations and smaller towns in Poland. The company also provides most international trains to ...
train, the main long-distance train operator in Poland.
Katowice has a direct Express Intercity Premium (high-speed) connection to
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
PKP Intercity
PKP Intercity is a company of PKP Group responsible for long-distance passenger transport. It runs about 350 trains daily, connecting mainly large agglomerations and smaller towns in Poland. The company also provides most international trains to ...
also offers direct standard connections to Kraków (under 1 hour),
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 ...
, Kielce and
Ostrava
Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...
(under 2 hours), Warsaw,
Rzeszów
Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...
,
Olomouc
Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019).
Located on th ...
, and
Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
(under 3 hours),
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...
(under 4 hours),
Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and
Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
(under 5 hours), as well as
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
,
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
.
Long-haul coach lines
Katowice has a modern international bus station located close to the city center. There are over 400 connections on a typical weekday, with the most-popular ones being domestic destinations in Poland and cities in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
Cycling, walking and other
Cycling is becoming a more popular mode of transportation in Katowice. As of 2021, the city had of dedicated bicycle lanes, up from in 2015. The municipal bicycle system is operated by
Nextbike
__FORCETOC__
nextbike is a German company that develops and operates public bike-sharing systems. The company was founded in Leipzig, Germany, in 2004. It operates in cities in 25 countries including Germany, UK, New Zealand, Poland, Croatia, ...
and has 83 stations with over 600 bicycles. Rides under 15 minutes are free, those 15–60 minutes are PLN 1 and each additional hour becomes more expensive.
Bolt and Blinkee operate commercial systems of scooter share. Traficar and Panek Car Share operate commercial carshare systems.
Freeways, roads and streets
Katowice has an extensive network of freeways, roads and streets, totaling over 1,120 km in length. The well-developed network supports over 200,000 cars registered in Katowice, and 49 percent of commuters that drive alone, a high share compared to other major cities in Poland. Several freeways in Katowice are among the busiest in Poland: expressway S86 between
Sosnowiec
Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Silesian Metropolis municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industria ...
and Katowice's city center and highway A4 between Murckowska and Mikołowska interchanges both see over 100,000 cars passing each day.
Katowice has a ring around its city center, consisting of highway A4, Murckowska freeway,
Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa
Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa (DTŚ, can be translated as ''diametral highway'' or ''central highway'') is a controlled-access highway in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. The DTŚ is entirely a dual carriageway with a minimum of 3 lanes in each direc ...
(a freeway-style road connecting downtowns of cities in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area) that partly goes in a tunnel underground and Bocheńskiego road. Many of the roads and freeways in Katowice expand radially from the city center and replaced old local roads.
Main roads
European route E40
European route E40 is the longest European route, more than long, connecting Calais in France via Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with Ridder in Kazakhstan near the border with R ...
passes through Katowice as highway A4. It enters the city from Chorzów and continues eastward, with three lanes in each direction on the main road and two to three lanes in parallel access roads. It meets Bocheńskiego road and continues towards Mikołowska interchange, which is one of the only combination interchanges in Poland and the main exit towards the city center. After that interchange, the highway loses its access roads due to lack of space in the dense urban area and continues east with four lanes in each direction. Access roads appear again (only on the south side, though) after around 500 meters and there is an exit towards Francuska Street. After another 1.5 kilometer, access roads appear again on the north side, too, and there is a tight exit towards Pułaskiego Street. The highway then runs into Murckowska interchange, before exiting the city.
National road 79 (DK79) enters Katowice from Chorzów and separates the
Silesian Park
Silesian Park ( pl, Park Śląski) is a recreation complex in the center of the Upper-Silesian Metropolis in Chorzów in Upper Silesia, Poland. Silesian Park is managed by WPKiW S.A.
The area of the park is 620 hectares, twice as large as the ...
and
Osiedle Tysiąclecia
Osiedle Tysiąclecia (''Millennial District'') is a district of Katowice and one of the largest districts in Poland. It is located in the northern part of Katowice, on the land once occupied by the villages of Bederowiec, Sośnina and east Klimzowi ...
in Katowice. It then merges with Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa (DTŚ) at the junction with Bocheńskiego road and Złota Street. It continues with DTŚ through the Katowice city center and descents into a tunnel under the Rondo roundabout. It then emerges overground again, right before an interchange with DK86. The road continues eastward as a freeway with exits towards Zawodzie and
Szopienice
Szopienice-Burowiec () is a district of Katowice, Poland, located in the north-eastern part of the city. It has an area of 8.47 km2 and in 2007 had 17,139 inhabitants.
The area of a district encompasses two historically important settlements ...
neighborhoods for several more kilometers, before entering
Mysłowice
Mysłowice ( szl, Myslowicy; german: Myslowitz) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. The population of the city is 74,085.
It is located in the south district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union in the Silesian Highlan ...
and becoming a standard-access road.
National road 81 (DK81) enters Katowice from
Mikołów
Mikołów (german: Nikolai, szl, Mikołōw) is a town in Silesia, in southern Poland, near the city of Katowice. It borders the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of over 2 million, and is within a greater Silesi ...
and runs through the southern residential neighborhoods as an arterial road with two lanes in each direction, named Kościuszki Street. In the Brynów neighborhood, Kościuszki Street continues towards Katowice's city center while NR 81 turns east, to run through the forest towards the interchange with DK86.
National road 86 (DK86) enters Katowice from
Sosnowiec
Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Silesian Metropolis municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industria ...
as expressway S86 up until Roździeńskiego interchange where it meets DK79 and loses its expressway status. It then continues south as Murckowska freeway east of the city center. It meets highway A4 and then passes by
Giszowiec
Giszowiec (German language, German: ''Gieschewald'') is an eastern district of the city of Katowice (Silesian Voivodeship, Poland), created as a coal miners' settlement in 1907. Initially consisting of about 3,300 miners and their families, the di ...
neighborhood and continues through the woods southward, with exits towards
Murcki
Murcki (german: Emanuelssegen) is a district of Katowice. It has an area of 41,53 km2 and in 2007 had 5,796 inhabitants.
References
External links
* kmmmurcki.pl - unofficial website Kostuchna
Kostuchna (german: Kostuchna) is a district of Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Up ...
. It bypasses Murcki from the east and continues south towards
Tychy
Tychy (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Tichau; szl, Tychy) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, approximately south of Katowice. Situated on the southern edge of the Upper Silesian industrial district, the city boders Katowice to the north, ...
.
Tempo 30 Zone
In 2015, Katowice designated most of its city center as a zone, in an effort to curb traffic fatalities and crashes. Within 3 years of operation, the number of accidents dropped by 41 percent, including 37 percent drop in accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists. The accidents are also less severe: there was a 55 percent drop in injured pedestrians and cyclists.
Airports
Located approximately north of the city center,
Katowice Airport
Katowice Wojciech Korfanty Airport ( pl, Katowice Airport im. Wojciecha Korfantego) is an international airport, located in Pyrzowice, north of Katowice, Poland. The airport has the 4th-biggest annual passenger flow in Poland. Katowice Airport ...
is the main airport serving Katowice. The airport is a focus city for
LOT Polish Airlines
LOT Polish Airlines, legally incorporated as Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. Established in 1928, LOT was a founding member of IATA and remains one of the world's oldest airlines in operation. Wit ...
,
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...
and its subsidiary
Buzz
Buzz may refer to:
People
*Buzz (nickname), a list of people
*J. Buzz Von Ornsteiner (born 1967; aka ''Dr. Buzz''), American forensic psychologist and journalist
Fictional characters
*Buzz, a character in the 1987 American comedy movie '' Reve ...
,
Wizz Air
Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. ( hu, Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Zrt.) is a Hungarian ultra-low-cost carrier with its head office in Budapest, Hungary. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as s ...
,
Smartwings
Smartwings, a.s. (formerly ''Travel Service, a.s.'') is a low-cost leisure Czech airline, with its head office on the property of Václav Havel Airport Prague in Ruzyně, 6th district, Prague. It is the biggest airline in the Czech Republic an ...
, and
Enter Air
Enter Air Sp. z o.o. is a Polish charter airline with its head office in Warsaw, Poland, and main base at Warsaw Chopin Airport and Katowice Airport. It operates holiday and charter flights out of its hubs in Poznań, Warsaw and Wrocław.
His ...
. The busiest routes are:
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
,
Antalya
Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...
,
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. Katowice is the largest leisure travel airport in Poland.
Long-haul flights
In aviation, the flight length refers to the distance of a flight. Commercial flights are often categorized into long-, medium- or short-haul by commercial airlines based on flight length, although there is no international standard definition and ...
are operated from Katowice to
Varadero
Varadero (), also referred to as ''Playa Azul'' (Blue Beach), is a resort town in the province of Matanzas Province, Matanzas, Cuba, and one of the largest resort areas in the Caribbean. Varadero Beach was rated one of the world's best beaches in ...
in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
,
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
in
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
,
Cancún
Cancún ( ), often Cancun in English (without the accent; or ) is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat ...
in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Malé
Malé (, ; dv, މާލެ) is the capital and most populous city of the Maldives. With a population of 252,768 and an area of , it is also one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The city is geographically located at the southern ...
in
Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
Punta Cana
Punta Cana is a resort town in the easternmost region of the Dominican Republic. It is part of the Veron–Punta Cana Municipalities of the Dominican Republic, municipal district, in the Salvaleón de Higüey, Higüey municipality of La Altagraci ...
in
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
. Katowice is also the second-largest cargo airport, after Warsaw Chopin. The airport is accessed through a metropolitan express bus line, running every 30 minutes between 4am and 9:30pm and every hour at night. A new train station at the airport is under construction, scheduled to be operational in 2023.
Katowice is also within an hour drive from Kraków Airport, which offers additional destinations and airlines such as
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
(
KLM
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...
),
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
(
Air France
Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...
),
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
(
Finnair
Finnair ( fi, Finnair Oyj, sv, Finnair Abp) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and internationa ...
),
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
and
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
(
LOT Polish Airlines
LOT Polish Airlines, legally incorporated as Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. Established in 1928, LOT was a founding member of IATA and remains one of the world's oldest airlines in operation. Wit ...
),
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
and
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
(
SAS
SAS or Sas may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers
* ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series
* Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
). The airport can be access through scheduled buses leaving from Katowice bus station every 30–60 minutes.
Sports
Katowice has a long sporting tradition and hosted the final of
EuroBasket 2009
The 2009 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2009, was the 36th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe. The tournament, which was hosted by Poland, began on 7 September and concluded with the ...
and
1975 European Athletics Indoor Championships
The 1975 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in 1975 in Katowice, Poland.
The track used for these championships was 160 metres long. A two-lap relay race was organised over an unusual distance of 320 metres for each leg. This was th ...
1976 World Ice Hockey Championships
The 1976 Ice Hockey World Championships were the 43rd Ice Hockey World Championships and the 54th European Championships in ice hockey. The tournament took place in Poland from 8 to 25 April, and the games were played in Katowice. Eight teams too ...
, 1957, 1985
European Weightlifting Championships
European Weightlifting Championships is an annual event organised by the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF). It has been held since 1896. A separate event for women was held from 1988 to 1997, after which both championships have been held ...
, 1974, 1982
World Wrestling Championships
The World Wrestling Championships are the Amateur Wrestling World Championships organized by United World Wrestling. The Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling tournament began in 1904, and the Men's Freestyle Wrestling tournament began in 1951. The Women's ...
, 1991 World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships,
2011 Women's European Union Amateur Boxing Championships
The 2011 Women's European Union Amateur Boxing Championships were held in the Spodek stadium in Katowice, Poland from June 6 to June 11. This was the 6th edition of this annual competition organised by the European governing body for amateur box ...
,
2014 FIVB Men's World Championship
The 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship was held in Poland from 30 August to 21 September 2014. The tournament featured 24 teams to determine the world champions in men's volleyball. In addition to the host nation Poland, 23 teams quali ...
and others.
The
Stadion Śląski
The Stadion Śląski ( en, Silesian Stadium) is a sport stadium located on the premises of Silesian Park in Chorzów, Poland. The stadium has a fully covered capacity of 55,211, after a recent refurbishment completed in October 2017. The stadium ...
is between Chorzów and Katowice. It was a
national stadium
Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...
of Poland, with more than 50 international matches of the
Poland national football team
The Poland national football team ( pl, Reprezentacja Polski w piłce nożnej) has represented Poland in men's international tournaments football competitions since their first match in 1921. The team is controlled by the Polish Football Associ ...
played here and around 30 matches in
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
competitions. There were also a
Speedway World Championship
The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championsh ...
,
Speedway Grand Prix of Europe
The Speedway Grand Prix of Europe was a speedway event that was a part of the Speedway Grand Prix Series.
Winners
Most wins
Jason Crump and Nicki Pedersen 3 times
References
See also
* List of Speedway Grand Prix riders
Grand ...
and many concerts featuring international stars.
Tourists can relax playing tennis or squash, doing
water sports
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...
also sailing (for example—in
Dolina Trzech Stawów
Valley of Three Ponds pl, Dolina Trzech Stawów) is a large park and wooden area in the southern part of the city of Katowice, Poland. The name comes from the existence of three large ponds in the park area.
Parks in Katowice
Reservoirs in ...
), horse-riding (in Wesoła Fala and Silesian culture and refreshment park), cycling or going to one of numerous excellently equipped fitness clubs. Near the city centre are sporting facilities like swimming pools (for example "Bugla", "Rolna") and in neighbourhood—
Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
courses (in
Siemianowice Śląskie
Siemianowice Śląskie also known as Siemianowice (; german: Siemianowitz-Laurahütte; szl, Siymianowice) is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice, in its central district in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropoli ...
).
Sports clubs
*
GKS Katowice
GKS Katowice (; GKS stands for , "Miners Sporting Club") is a Polish football club based in Katowice, Poland. The club currently plays in the I liga, after having won promotion in 2021.
History
In 1963 in Katowice a special organizational ...
– men's
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, (
Polish Cup
The Polish Cup in football ( pl, Puchar Polski w piłce nożnej ) is an elimination tournament for Polish football clubs, held continuously from 1950, and is the second most important national title in Polish football after the Ekstraklasa title. ...
winner: 1986, 1991, 1993;
Polish SuperCup
The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2021, the Polish Super Cup has been pl ...
winner: 1991, 1995; 1st league in 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 seasons).
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
1. FC Kattowitz
1. FC Kattowitz ( pl, 1. FC Katowice) was an ethnically German football club playing in what was Kattowitz, Silesia Province in Germany (now Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland) and was active during the inter-war period and World War II when ...
– football club, vice-champion of Poland: 1927; champion of Upper Silesia: 1907, 1908, 1909, 1913, 1922, 1932, 1945
*
AZS AWF Katowice
AZS AWF Katowice is a Polish women's handball team, based in Katowice.
See also
* Handball in Poland
* Sports in Poland
Poland's sports include almost all sporting disciplines, in particular: football (the most popular sport), volleyball, mot ...
– various sports, women's
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
team playing in the second league, fencing section – many medals in the Polish Championship
*
Naprzód Janów
Naprzód Janów is an ice hockey team from the Janów neighbourhood of Katowice, Poland. They compete in the Polska Hokej Liga, the top level of ice hockey in Poland.
History
The team was founded as Górnik Janów in 1920. In 1962, they were ren ...
Katowice – hockey club playing in
Polish Hockey Superleague
The Polska Hokej Liga is the premier ice hockey league in Poland. Previously, it was known as the I Liga or Ekstraklasa from 1926 to 1999, and the Polska Liga Hokejowa from 1999 to 2013. In 2013, it was reorganized as a limited liability company ...
, vice-champion of Poland (5x): 1971, 1973, 1977, 1989, 1992; bronze medal (7x): 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1987; Polish Cup (1x): 1970.
*AZS US Katowice – various sports, many medals in the Polish Championship in various sports
*HKS Szopienice – various sports, many medals in the Polish and Europe and World Championship in
weightlifting
Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift Weight training#Equipment, weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various t ...
*
Silesia Miners
The AZS Silesia Rebels are an American football team in Katowice, Silesia, Poland. The Rebels team arose from a merger between the Silesia Miners and the Ruda Śląska Warriors.
It is only PLFA team operates as an Academic Sports Association (AZ ...
–
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
club playing in
Polish American Football League
The Polish American Football League or shortly PLFA ( pl, Polska Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego) was a structured system for the American football competitions in Poland founded in 2004 by the Polish federation PZFA. In 2012, the Topliga was creat ...
, Polish champion in 2009, vice-champion in 2007
*Jango Katowice –
futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football.
Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...
club playing in Polish Futsal Superleague; Polish Cup (1x): 2007; bronze medal Polish Championship (2x): 2001, 2007
*
Rozwój Katowice
Rozwój Katowice is a Polish football club located in Katowice, Poland. It currently plays in Polish Second League. The team's primary colors are green, yellow, and black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absor ...
– football club playing in
Polish Third League
III liga (Trzecia liga) is a Polish football league that sits in the fourth tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season, III liga referred to a league at the third tier (now called II liga) but this was cha ...
*MK Katowice – football club playing in
Polish Fourth League
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
*Hetman Szopienice – chess club, many medals in the Polish Championship
*Sparta Katowice – various sports, many medals in the Polish Championship in various sports
* Policyjny Klub Sportowy Katowice – various sports, many medals in the Polish Championship in various sports
*AWF Mickiewicz Katowice – basketball club
*Silesian
Flying club
A flying club or aero club is a not-for-profit, member-run organization that provides its members with affordable access to aircraft.
Many clubs also provide flight training, flight planning facilities, pilot supplies and associated services, as ...
(Aeroklub Śląski)
Defunct sports clubs:
* Diana Kattowitz – football club
* Germania Kattowitz – football club
*KS Baildon Katowice – various sports, many medals in the Polish Championship in various sports
*Pogoń Katowice – various sports, many medals in the Polish Championship in various sports
Sports events
*
1975 European Athletics Indoor Championships
The 1975 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in 1975 in Katowice, Poland.
The track used for these championships was 160 metres long. A two-lap relay race was organised over an unusual distance of 320 metres for each leg. This was th ...
*
1976 World Ice Hockey Championships
The 1976 Ice Hockey World Championships were the 43rd Ice Hockey World Championships and the 54th European Championships in ice hockey. The tournament took place in Poland from 8 to 25 April, and the games were played in Katowice. Eight teams too ...
*
FIVB World League 2001
The 2001 FIVB Volleyball World League was the 12th edition of the annual men's international volleyball tournament, played by 16 countries from 11 May to 30 June 2001. The Final Round was held in Katowice, Poland.
Pools composition
Intercontin ...
*
FIVB World League 2007
The 2007 FIVB Volleyball World League was the 18th edition of the annual men's international volleyball tournament, played by 16 countries from 25 May to 15 July 2007. The Final Round was held in Katowice, Poland.
Pools composition
Intercontin ...
*
Eurobasket 2009
The 2009 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2009, was the 36th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe. The tournament, which was hosted by Poland, began on 7 September and concluded with the ...
*
Tour de Pologne 2010
The 2010 Tour de Pologne was the 67th running of the Tour de Pologne, in the 82nd year since the first edition. The event was part of both the 2010 UCI ProTour and the World Calendar. It ran from 1 to 7 August and commenced in Sochaczew and finis ...
EMS One Katowice 2014
Electronic Sports League Major Series One Katowice 2014, also known as EMS One Katowice 2014, was the second '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship. The tournament was held from March 13–16, 2014 at the Spodek Arena in Kato ...
ESL One Katowice 2015
ESL One Katowice 2015, also known as Katowice 2015, was the fifth '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship, held from March 12 to March 15, 2015 at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. It was the first ''CS:GO'' Major of 2015. ...
Overwatch World Cup 2017
The 2017 Overwatch World Cup was an ''Overwatch'' esports tournament, organized by Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer. It was the second Overwatch World Cup and featured 32 represented nations from around the world, with the final tourna ...
Hans Sachs
Hans Sachs (5 November 1494 – 19 January 1576) was a German ''Meistersinger'' ("mastersinger"), poet, playwright, and shoemaker.
Biography
Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg (). As a child he attended a singing school that was held in the churc ...
(1877–1945), serologist
*
Kurt Goldstein
Kurt Goldstein (November 6, 1878 – September 19, 1965) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist who created a holistic theory of the organism. Educated in medicine, Goldstein studied under Carl Wernicke and Ludwig Edinger where he focused on n ...
(1878–1965), neurologist
*
Erich Przywara
Erich Przywara (12 October 1889, Katowice28 September 1972, Hagen near Murnau) was a Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian of German- Polish origin, who was one of the first Catholics to engage in dialogue with modern philosophers, es ...
(1889–1972), priest
* Hans Mikosch (1898–1993), general
*
Hans Källner
__NOTOC__{{Infobox military person
, name=Hans Källner
, birth_date={{Birth date, 1898, 10, 09, df=y
, death_date={{death date and age, 1945, 04, 18, 1898, 10, 18, df=y
, birth_place= Kattowitz, Upper Silesia
, death_place=near Olomouc
, image=Han ...
(1898–1945), general
*
Franz Leopold Neumann
Franz Leopold Neumann (23 May 1900 – 2 September 1954) was a German political activist, Western Marxist theorist and labor lawyer, who became a political scientist in exile and is best known for his theoretical analyses of National Sociali ...
(1900–1954), politician
*
Willy Fritsch
Willy Fritsch (27 January 1901 – 13 July 1973) was a German theater and film actor, a popular leading man and character actor from the silent-film era to the early 1960s.
Biography Early life
He was born Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch, the only s ...
(1901–1973), actor
*
Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 24 February 1975) was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer.
Biography
Be ...
(1902–1975), surrealist photographer
*
Hans-Christoph Seebohm
Hans-Christoph Seebohm (4 August 1903 – 17 September 1967) was a German politician of the national conservative German Party (''Deutsche Partei'', DP) and after 1960 the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the minister of Transport for 1 ...
(1903–1967), politician
*
Maria Goeppert-Mayer
Maria Goeppert Mayer (; June 28, 1906 – February 20, 1972) was a German-born American theoretical physicist, and Nobel laureate in Physics for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense ...
(1906–1972), physicist, Nobel Prize winner
*
Kurt Schwaen
Kurt Schwaen (June 21, 1909 in Katowice – October 9, 2007 in Berlin) was a German composer.
Professional career
Schwaen studied piano, organ and composition under Fritz Lubrich. From 1929 to 1933 he studied at the universities of Berlin ...
(1909–2007), composer
*
Rudolf Schnackenburg
Rudolf Schnackenburg (5 January 1914 – 28 August 2002) was a German Catholic priest and New Testament scholar. Joseph Ratzinger referred to him as "probably the most significant German-speaking Catholic exegete of the second half of the twentiet ...
(1914–2002), priest
*
Georg Thomalla
Georg Thomalla (14 February 1915 – 25 August 1999) was a German actor. He appeared in about one hundred fifty film and television productions between 1939 and 2000 and was widely known in Germany for his comedic roles.
Thomalla was well k ...
(1915–1999), actor
*
Ernst Wilimowski
Ernest Otton Wilimowski (, born Ernst Otto Prandella; 23 June 1916 – 30 August 1997), nicknamed "Ezi", was a Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He ranks among the best goalscorers in the h ...
Chaskel Besser
Chaskel Besser (born Chaskiel Koszycki; February 12, 1923 – February 9, 2010) was an Orthodox rabbi for much of the 20th and early 21st century, and a member of Radomsk Chassidic movement. He lived in Manhattan, New York. He was born in Katowi ...
(1923–2010),
Orthodox rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
*
Kazimierz Kutz
Kazimierz Julian Kutz (16 February 1929 – 18 December 2018) was a Polish film director, author, journalist and politician, one of the representatives of the Polish Film School and a deputy speaker of the Senate of Poland.
Biography
Kazimierz ...
(1929–2018), film director and politician
* Waldemar Świerzy (1931–2013), artist, illustrator and cartoonist
*
Wojciech Kilar
Wojciech Kilar (; 17 July 1932 – 29 December 2013) was a Polish classical and film music composer. One of his greatest successes came with his score to Francis Ford Coppola's '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' in 1992, which received the ASCAP Award ...
(1932–2013), classical and
film music
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...
composer
*
Henryk Górecki
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki ( , ; 6 December 1933 – 12 November 2010) was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. According to critic Alex Ross, no recent classical composer has had as much commercial success as Górecki. He became a l ...
(1933–2010),
classical composer
This is a list of classical music composers by era. With the exception of the overview, the Modernist era has been combined with the Postmodern.
Overview
Preset = TimeHorizontal_AutoPlaceBars_UnitYear
ImageSize = width:1100 height:auto bari ...
Janusz Sidło
Janusz Jan Sidło (19 June 1933 – 2 August 1993) was a Polish javelin thrower. He competed at the 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968 Olympics and finished in 18th, 2nd, 8th, 4th and 7th place, respectively. He was awarded the Officer's Cross of ...
(1933–1993), javelin thrower
*Josef Kompalla (born 1936), ice hockey player and referee
*Henryk Broder (born 1946), journalist
*Krzysztof Krawczyk (1946–2021), singer, guitarist and composer
*Jerzy Kukuczka (1948–1989), alpine and high altitude climber
*Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska (born 1963), politician
*Elżbieta Bieńkowska (born 1964), politician
*Alicja Kwade (born 1979), contemporary visual artist
*Jan P. Matuszyński (born 1984), film director
*Grzegorz Kosok (born 1986), volleyball player
*Zuzanna Bijoch (born 1994), fashion model
Twin towns – sister cities
Katowice is Sister city, twinned with:
* Cologne, Germany
* Donetsk, Ukraine
* Groningen, Netherlands
* Košice, Slovakia
* Lviv, Ukraine
* Miskolc, Hungary
* Mobile, Alabama, Mobile, United States
* Odense Municipality, Odense, Denmark
* Opava, Czech Republic
*
Ostrava
Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...
, Czech Republic
* Pula, Croatia
* Saint-Étienne, France
* Shenyang, China
* South Dublin, Ireland
See also
* List of mayors of Katowice
* List of tallest buildings in Katowice
Interesting things and places in Katowice
{{Authority control
Katowice,
Cities and towns in Silesian Voivodeship
Cities in Silesia
City counties of Poland
Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939)
Province of Upper Silesia