KATOWICE - In Your Pocket

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HISTORY
Katowice can count itself
as one of Poland’s newer
cities, and a direct result of
the industrial age. That’s not
to say the region was a barren
wasteland prior to the
age of steam. The history
books suggest the area was
inhabited by ethnic Silesians
centuries earlier, with the
first recorded settlement
being the village of Krasny
Dab, whose existence was
officially chronicled in 1299.
In 1598 a village called Villa Nova was also documented to
stand in the area now taken up by Katowice. By this time the
region had changed from Bohemian hands to the domain of
the Habsburg dynasty.
Things started hotting up in 1742 when the area changed
hands once more, this time as the property of the Prussians.
1788 saw Karolina - the area’s first mine - opened,
and by 1822 historic documents note 102 homesteads
in the village of Katowice. Two years later the first school
was opened and Katowice started making its first steps
into adulthood. What really set the ball rolling was the
construction of a railway station in 1847. Industrialist and
mining mogul Franz Winkler saw this as an opportunity to
build up the mines he owned in the region, and Katowice
was quickly developed as an industrial town. September
11, 1865, saw Katowice awarded municipal rights and by
1875 it had grown to hold over 11,000 residents, of which
half were of Polish ethnicity. The city continued to prosper
as an industrial heartland, with coal and steel industries
flourishing. By 1897 it was officially designated as a city,
though the streets were anything but a happy place; the
even split in population between Germans and Poles was
already causing friction.
After the defeat of Germany in WWI, and the founding of a
newly independent Polish state, native Poles - inspired by
the rhetoric of Wojciech Korfanty - staged three uprisings
between 1919 and 1921 in a bid to have the Silesia region
incorporated into the Second Polish Republic. To prevent
outright war from breaking out the League of Nations
finally intervened and in 1922 divided the region beween
both Poles and Germans. Kattowitz, as it was known
before this date, fell on the Polish side of the divide and
inexplicably became an autonomous voivodeship - a privelege
unique from any other province in PL. The inter-war
years marked a golden age for the city, with the building
of the Silesian Parliament complex and one of Poland’s
first skyscrapers (Cloud Scraper) being symbolic of the
march into the future.
Bad news was lurking around the corner though, and in spite
of a heroic defence the city fell under German control on
September 6, 1939. Aside from the savage destruction of the
synagogue and the Silesian Museum, physically speaking the
city escaped the fiery fate of many eastern cities, and found
itself used as a major centre of manufacturing by the Nazis.
Liberation came in the form of Soviet tanks in 1945, and the
city was once more Polish - in theory. Between 1953 and
1956 it was renamed Stalinograd, and a period of thoughtless
development followed; the primitive exploitation of the region’s
natural resources saw it marked out as an environmental
blackspot with horrific pollution problems. Although there was
plenty of work in the mines and steel mills, popular unrest with
the communist system was growing fast. Living standards had
plummeted, with empty shop shelves and round-the-block
queues a common sight. In 1980 a series of strikes inspired by
the Gdańsk born Solidarity movement quickly spread around
the country. Demands for better living conditions were initially
met, but Solidarity continued to lobby for further reforms and
free elections. The Kremlin was furious, and with Soviet invasion
a looming threat, appointed communist president Jaruzelski
declared a state of martial law on December 13, 1981.
Tanks roared into the street, subversives were arrested and
telephone lines were cut. On December 16 a military assault
was launched on striking miners in Katowice’s ‘Wujek’ mine,
resulting in the deaths of nine workers. With Solidarity officially
dissolved and its leaders imprisoned, discontent was growing.
John Paul II visited Poland, and Katowice, once more in 1983,
his mere presence igniting hopes and unifying the people in
popular protest. The people would not back down. Over the
next few years - buoyed by a Gorbachev-inspired relaxation
of Soviet foreign policy - the Polish people continued to batter
on the door of freedom.
Renewed labour strikes and a faltering economy nosediving
towards disaster forced Jaruzelski into initiating talks with
opposition leaders in 1988, and the following year Solidarity
was once more granted legal status. Participating in Poland’s
first post-Communist election the party swept to victory, with
former electrician Lech Wałęsa leading from the soapbox.
Fittingly it was Wałęsa who unveiled a monument in Katowice
to the miners killed in 1981 on the tenth anniversary of the
event. Poland’s transition to a market economy has since
been tough, though the signs seem to point to a bright future
for Poland. Katowice itself has done much to repair the
environmental damage caused in the post WWII years, and
the city is once more booming, with a huge influx of foreign
investment marking a reversal of the city’s recent fortunes.
Katowice Historical Timeline
1299: First recorded settlement in Silesia, ruled by
Polish Silesian Piast dynasty
1335: Territory becomes part of Crown of Bohemia
1526: Territory passed to Austrian Habsburg Monarchy
1598: First documented settlement in Katowice area
1742: Territory becomes part of Prussian empire during
First Silesian War
1788: Area’s first mine opens
1822: Katowice’s population hits 100 homestead mark
1847: Railway station built
1865: Municipal rights awarded to ‘Kattowitz’
1871: Kattowitz is incorporated into German Empire
1875: Kattowitz’s population records 11,000 residents
1897: Granted rights as a city
1922: Katowice becomes part of Second Polish
Republic after WWI and Silesian Uprisings
(1918-21). Granted autonomy by the Polish Sejm.
1939: Occupied by Nazi Germany
1945: Katowice is ‘Liberated’ by Soviets after WWII
1953: City is renamed Stalinogród by Polish communist
government
1956: Former name of Katowice restored
1981: Martial law declared, Wujek mine strike and massacre
1983: The Pope visits Katowice
1989: Party-free elections in Poland; Communist
regime crumbles
2004: Poland enters the European Union
2006: Pigeon Fair Disaster - 65 killed and 170 injured
when Katowice convention centre roof collapses
2010: Polish President Lech Kaczyński and 95 other
Polish delegates die in a plane crash near
Smolensk, Russia, plunging the country into
mourning
Katowice In Your Pocket katowice.inyourpocket.com
Katowice Historical Museum © Jan Mehlich
The fact that Katowice hasn’t grown into a popular tourist
destination can probably be explained by the brevity and
slightly dubious nature of our Katowice sightseeing section
- an earnest attempt to cover Katowice’s main (ahem)
attractions. Nope, no castle, no palace, no hip bohemian
district. No pedestrian shopping avenues, bridges or scenic
riverside. Uh, no, no ancient ruins. No Old Town per say.
Alas, a trip around Katowice may call to mind the old adage
‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ (with the coal dirt and
other particulates, in this case).
Spodek and downtown Katowice UM Katowice
No, Katowice won’t be winning any European beauty pageants,
and unlike other urban casualties (hello to our friends
in Warsaw), the city can’t claim to have been beaten by the
Ugly Stick during World War II. No, Katowice was born with
that heirloom in its hand and the Nazis probably snatched
it from here as they rumbled east to the capital. And while
the Soviets returned with it after the war, destroying many
of the buildings on the Rynek in the 1950s to make room for
their modern monuments to concrete, for example, it was
predestiny that Katowice would never be belle of the ball.
A blue collar city to this day, Katowice and its neighbours
in Upper Silesia were born into the working class, growing
up during the industrial revolution and put to work in sooty
katowice.inyourpocket.com
ESSENTIAL KATOWICE
mineshafts, factories and railway yards. The area’s history is
inextricably entwined with the manufacture of coal and steel
and the stacks, shafts, slagheaps and massive waves of
migrants that followed the discovery of the region’s mineral
resources. As such, any mention of tourism in the district is
usually preceded by the word, ‘industrial.’ Indeed the derelict
factories and foundries, blackened chimneys and abandoned
maintenance yards of Silesia’s industrial boom represent the
hulking bulk of Silesia’s tourist offerings, and the region is ripe
for renegade tourists eager to explore evidence of a bygone
era. Those interested in industrial tourism are advised to get
their creased hands on a copy of Silesia’s Industrial Monuments
Route - which can be picked up free of charge in any
Silesian tourist information office - and while we’ve covered
many of the entailed sites in this very guide, the region has
plenty more to offer than we have space to include here.
Nikiszowiec
Katowice, for its part, has become a growing business centre
as you’ll glean from the glittering capitalist monoliths built
in recent decades. Those seeking more conventional interpretations
of the word attraction will find plenty of churches
including Christ the King Cathedral - the country’s largest,
one of the best museums in southern Poland in the Katowice
Historical Museum, and anyone paying attention will notice
a number of discreetly handsome townhouses, particularly
along ulica 3-go Maja between the Rynek (C-3) and Plac
Wolności (C-1). Conventional charm has obviously never
been a strength of Katowice, however, as best evidenced by
the bonkers Spodek building (B-3) and the offbeat outland
districts of Nikiszowiec and Giszowiec. The city’s most
bonafide attraction is the immense Park of Culture and
Recreation, which is techincally located in Chorzów. Yes, it’s
always been the shaft (literally) for Katowice, and while being
a tourist in this city may feel a bit like getting dressed for the
theatre and ending up at a Board of Education meeting, we
hope you enjoy it for its oddities, and remember that some
things look most beautiful through beer goggles.
Christ the King Cathedral © PetrusSilesius
July - October 2012
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