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Oct 14, 2024 · We’ve made the ultimate tourist map of Katowice, Poland for travelers! Check out Katowice’s top things to do, attractions, restaurants, and major transportation hubs all in one interactive map.
Jan 19, 2022 · The next World Urban Forum (WUF) will take place, for the first time in Eastern Europe, in the city of Katowice, Poland, from the 26th to the 30th of June 2022.
- Fabian Dejtiar
Jul 18, 2022 · Its shift from a coal mining city to an international hub for conferences has been so successful that it was chosen to host the 2018 UN climate conference COP24 and the 2022 UN Habitat World Urban Forum.
- Visit the Silesian Museum. The Silesian Museum was founded in 1929 to catalogue the region’s history, particularly as it relates to the coal mines and the Silesian Uprisings (more on that later).
- Sunset drinks by the Spodek. A 10-minute walk from the Silesian Museum, the Spodek Arena is part of the Katowice Cultural Zone, which also includes the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
- Stroll around Market Square & Mariacka Street. Plotted in the mid 19th century and rebuilt several times since, Katowice’s main square is a sprawling pedestrian plaza criss-crossed by tram tracks.
- Stop by the mighty Superjednostka. Of all the things to do in Katowice, the Superjednostka (‘Super Unit’) was one of the landmarks I was most excited about seeing in person.
- Silesian Museum
- Nikiszowiec
- Museum of The History of Katowice
- Kościuszko Park
- Silesian Insurgents’ Monument
- Cathedral of Christ The King
- Ulica Mariacka
- St Mary’s Church
- Architecture
- Spodek
From a distance the first thing that will hove into view as you approach the Silesian Museum is the giant headframe that had stood idle after the Katowice colliery around it closed in 1999 after almost 180 years. Now that tower has an observation platform open in summer. The headframe isn’t the only part of the mine that has been converted, as four...
A few minutes on foot or a brief bus-ride from the centre of Katowice is a superb piece of Polish national heritage; an intact city district for 8,000 people built for miners at the Giesche colliery. Nikiszowiec was in fact a separate, self-contained city, from its completion in 1918 until it was absorbed by Katowice in 1951. The settlement had int...
The headquarters for this museum, and most of its departments, are in a tenement house from 1908 on Ulica Szafranka. If you wanted to pick one setting to sum up Katowice, this would be perfect, as in this period the city was growing at a dizzying rate. The permanent exhibition shows you around two apartments; one for a rich industrialist family, an...
Named after one of Poland’s national heroes, Kościuszko Park is the handiest green space if you’re in the centre of Katowice, swelling from six hectares when it was inaugurated in 1888 to more than 72 today. Wreathed by an English landscape park made up of dozens of different tree species are formal flowerbeds, an avenue of roses and florid pergola...
One sight to give you a sense of place is this gigantic monument to the people who took part in the three Silesian Uprisings in 1919, 1920 and 1921. The cause was to force the Upper Silesia to join the new Polish state that had been created after the Treaty of Versailles. Poles made up 60% of the population of Upper Silesia and rebelled three times...
Construction of this colossal archcathedral, the largest in Poland, began in 1927 and was interrupted by the Second World War. It would finally be completed in 1955, and has powerful Neoclassical architecture epitomised by a 40-metre-high dome and an awe-inspiring portico. Despite the classical lines it’s a thoroughly modern building, with a struct...
In the central Śródmieście district, the pedestrianised Ulica Mariacka is Katowice’s main nightlife artery, leading to the bold tower of St Mary’s Church, which we’ll explore next. The street was only pedestrianised in 2008, and in 2011 a row of 30 cherry tree saplings were planted on the way, now sprinkling some colour in spring. Packed into a few...
With mass immigration to Upper Silesia and the city burgeoning in the middle of the 19th century, all these new residents needed a place of worship. The answer was St Mary’s Church, which was erected in the 1860s. And even though it’s a relatively new construction, this church has a lot of value as many of the most respected artists of the day work...
Having only gained city status in 1865, Katowice isn’t a Medieval or Renaissance idyll like Kraków or Lublin; but that doesn’t mean that the city’s architecture doesn’t have its own power. As the Śródmieście, city centre, was built in one go in the 19th century it was often compared to Paris for its many palatial tenement buildings, some with Art N...
After Stalin died, architecture in Poland was able to move on from Socialist Realism to more exciting frontiers. And that is the context for this outlandish building, named “Saucer” in Polish. Spodek was started in 1964 and work continued up to 1971. From then until just 2014 Spodek was the largest indoor arena in Poland, with a capacity of 11,500....
Katowice is a large city in the Silesian Voivodeship (województwo śląskie) in the south of Poland. In 2021 it had a population of 315,000; it's the central city of Metropolis GZM (population 2.3 million) which in turn is part of Upper Silesian-Moravian metropolitan area sprawling across the Czech border.
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Top Things to Do in Katowice, Poland: See Tripadvisor's 30,912 traveller reviews and photos of Katowice tourist attractions. Find what to do today, this weekend, or in November. We have reviews of the best places to see in Katowice. Visit top-rated & must-see attractions.
