Ruda Śląska (formerly ) is a city in

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 ...

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 ...

, near

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 Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

. It is a district in the

Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union 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 ...

, a metropolis with a population of two million. It is 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 ...

, on the

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 ...

River (tributary 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 ...

). It has been part 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 ...

since its formation in 1999. Previously, it was in

Katowice Voivodeship Katowice Voivodeship () can refer to one of two political entities in Poland: Katowice Voivodeship (1), initially "Silesian-Dabrowa Voivodeship" ( pl, województwo śląsko-dąbrowskie), was a unit of administrative division and local government ...

, and before then, part of the

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 ...

. Ruda Śląska is one of the cities in 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 Voivode ...

(population 2.7 million) and within the greater

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 ...

(population 5,294,000). The population of the city is 135,008 (December 2021).

History

A large village is known to have existed at the location of the present day city center in 1243. The city name appears to indicate the awareness and perhaps exploitation of ores from early times. The area underwent rapid industrialization (coal, steel,

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

) in the 19th and the beginning of 20th century. However, it remained a cluster of industrial settlements and villages until the 1950s, when it was administratively united. However, it never developed into a truly unified city. Before the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

and the outbreak 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 ...

, in 1939, German saboteurs carried out an attack in Ruda. Following the invasion, the area was 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 ...

from 1939 to 1945. Several Polish teachers from present-day Ruda Śląska were murdered by the Germans in

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 ...

as part of the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...

''. The Germans also established and operated a ''

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 ...

'' forced labour camp for Poles in the present-day district of Kochłowice, and the E83 forced labour subcamp of the Stalag VIII-B/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 ...

in the present-day district of Chebzie. The Polish resistance movement was active in the area. In 1945, the German occupation ended, and the area was restored to Poland, although with a

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

-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

in the 1980s. After the fall of communism in 1989, the significant heavy industry was largely scaled down or restructured. The area has been transforming to a service-based economy. The well-known still operating coal mine is "Halemba". Since 2007, Ruda Śląska has been a member of the

, the largest legally recognized urban area in Poland.

Transport and infrastructure

Significant roadways are Highway A4 and the

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 ...

. There are several small railway stations, mainly on the line Katowice-Gliwice. Since 1950, Ruda Śląska is the site of a transmission facility, which was used from 1950 to 1988 for medium-wave radio broadcasting.

Higher education

The neighboring cities of

and

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 ...

are large academic centers. Ruda Śląska is a seat of the Higher Academy of Commerce (Wyższa Szkoła Handlowa).

Sports

Ruda Śląska - Były Dom Kultury KWK Wawel

* Zgoda Ruda Śląska – 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 ...

team playing in

Polish Ekstraklasa Women's Handball League The Polish Women's Superliga, also known as the PGNiG Women's Superliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top women's handball league in Poland. The current champion is MKS Lublin 2021-22 teams * JKS Jarosław * Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalsk ...

*Rugby Club IGLOO Ruda Śląska – men's rugby team playing in Polish Ekstraliga Rugby Seven's

Subdivisions

The city of Ruda Śląska is divided into following subdivisions:

Notable people

* Karl Godulla (1781–1848), German industrialist *

Günter Bialas Günter Bialas (19 July 1907 – 8 July 1995) was a German composer. Life Bialas was born in Bielschowitz (today Bielszowice, a subdivision of Ruda Śląska) in Prussian Silesia. His father was the business manager of a German theatre, and hi ...

(1907–1995), German composer * Paweł Cyganek (1913–1995), footballer *

Ernest Pohl Ernest Pohl (3 November 1932 – 12 September 1995), a.k.a. Ernst Pol, was a Polish football player. He was born in Ruda (now Ruda Śląska), Poland and died in Hausach, Germany. Career Pohl scored 39 goals in 46 international matches for Pola ...

(1932–1995), footballer *

Erwin Wilczek Erwin Wilczek (20 November 1940 – 30 November 2021) was a Polish professional footballer who is most famous for his 1960s performances in both Górnik Zabrze and the Poland national team. He started as a forward, after some time he was moved ...

(born 1940), footballer * Marcin Baszczynski (born 1977), footballer * Marek Plawgo (born 1981), athlete *

Otylia Jędrzejczak Otylia Jędrzejczak (; born 13 December 1983) is a Polish swimmer. She was the Olympic champion from 2004 Athens in the 200 metre butterfly. She finished 4th in this event in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and also swam at the 2000 Summ ...

(born 1983), Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder in swimming *

Kasia Moś Katarzyna "Kasia" Moś ( ; born 3 March 1987) is a Polish singer, songwriter, and dancer. She was previously a member of The Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Revue in 2011, and in 2012, she came third in the third series of the Polish version ...

(born 1987), singer and songwriter, represented Poland at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2017 The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was the 62nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Kyiv, Ukraine, following the country's victory at the with the song "1944 (song), 1944" by Jamala. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...

Artur Sobiech Artur Sobiech (; born 12 June 1990) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Lech Poznań. Club career Sobiech was born in Ruda Śląska. After spending four years at Ruch Chorzów, where he started his professional car ...

(born 1990), footballer * Kamil Grabara (born 1999), footballer * Mateusz Bogusz (born 2001), footballer * Jakub Kamiński (born 2002), footballer Ruda Śląska is the largest population center in Poland never to have been visited by

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 ...

. This is shown on a brass

plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I * Pl ...

on the side of the ratusz (town hall).

Twin towns – sister cities

Ruda Śląska is twinned with: *

Carrickfergus Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,998 at the 2011 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest t ...

, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom *

Levice Levice (; hu, Léva, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Lewenz, literally lionesses) is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies on the left bank of the lower Hron river. The Old Slavic name of the town was ''Leva'', which means "the Left On ...

, Slovakia * Mank, Austria *

Vibo Valentia Vibo Valentia (; Monteleone before 1861; Monteleone di Calabria from 1861 to 1928; scn, label= Calabrian, Vibbu Valenzia or ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Calabria region of southern Italy, near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the ca ...

, Italy

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruda Slaska City counties of Poland Cities and towns in Silesian Voivodeship Socialist planned cities