There are no castles, palaces and monuments of ancient times in Katowice. That is, there are no old buildings. The city survived the devastation during World War II. After many years of approval of the reconstruction plan, large-scale construction work was carried out in Katowice. Now it is a modern European city with cultural parks, entertainment centers, bars and busy streets. In the article you will learn a lot about Katowice in Poland, sights (photos with the description below) of the city and a bit of history.
Infrastructure
Katowice in Poland became a growing business and cultural center in the post-communist era. Although there was a time when the city was not popular with tourists, but times have changed a lot. Today the center of Katowice is filled with modern architecture with many cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs for every taste.
One of the best museums in southern Poland is the Silesian Museum, located on the site of the former coal mine Katowice, which today forms the cultural zone of the city. Lovers of outdoor activities can visit the Valley of the Three Ponds, which has everything from beaches to bike paths, or go to the Silesian Park, which is full of family attractions (including an amusement park and a zoo), the city's infrastructure offers magnificent views of the Elka cable car.
In Katowice you can see the sights in one day. Most of the city is characterized by its complete inconsistency with the standard template for European tourist destinations (castle, town square, embankment, etc.).
Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park in Katowice (Poland)
This open-air folklore park represents the rural life of Silesia through architectural monuments. Since the end of the 60s, the “skansen” of Khožuv has been saving the endangered Silesian structures in this improvised village, spread over 20 hectares of idyllic countryside. Grouped into six ethnographic regions, visitors inspect about 100 buildings built between the late 18th and early 20th centuries, including traditional thatched-roof houses, granaries, historic wooden churches, roadside shrines and windmills (Mondays) the park does not work). Many of the buildings are open with indoor exhibits and informative staff. There is even an old inn where you can eat and drink beer. One of the farms has several goats.
Silesian park
Upper Silesia, and especially its capital, Katowice, has always been associated as the region of Poland, the most affected by the Communists. Scars were, unfortunately, everywhere: from the once brutal, ingenuous architecture of the center of Katowice to the overpass that runs to the market square of Chorzow, not to mention the giant chimneys, abandoned mines and dilapidated mountain complexes. Nevertheless, the Polish communist regime was not completely deprived of foresight, and just a few years after the "inheritance" of the ruined industrial waste of Upper Silesia after the Second World War, party leaders allocated a vast territory of 620 hectares, a site on the border of Katowice and Chorzow, with the intention of creating the largest City park in Europe. Like many PRL development projects, the party’s vision not only required some kind of open space for public use, but also created a high-class park that would be applicable in art, education, culture and sports. Under the leadership of the local hero Jerzy Zentek, a Silesian revolutionary and eventually became a politician, in 1950 work began on what became a provincial park of culture and recreation.
The working class was urged to participate in the creation of this “people's park." The support for building the landmark in Katowice was enormous, and indeed, everything from industrial workers to schoolchildren participated in the construction of the park and the planting of 3.5 million trees and shrubs.
Silesian Zoo
Located in the Silesian park and recreation area, PL's largest zoo is a huge extravaganza of 50 hectares, which is home to 2,465 animals of 390 species from around the world, including visitors' favorites such as hippos, rhinos, Siberian tigers and cheetahs. When visiting this place, children are delighted thanks to the zoo and the valley, in which there are several dinosaurs built from concrete. In Katowice, the attraction (photo above) is very popular. Feeding times for small pandas are daily at 12:00 and for pelicans 09:30 and 17:00.
City Botanical Garden
The city botanical garden is located on the territory of 6.5 hectares. This is a great place to relax with the serenity of the stream, several picturesque ponds surrounded by willows, a palm house, a cactus house, English gardens and a children's playground. Great place for weddings and photo shoots. You can get there by bus from the city center, at number 32, 932 or 720.
Katowice Forest Park
Occupying 420 hectares of land between railways, motorways, coal mines, airports, apartment buildings and other places of Silesian development that form its borders, this predominantly wooded area south of the city center is considered the best place in Katowice. On the territory of the protected natural zone of Forest Park, which includes the Valley of Three Ponds, you can see many marked trails, deer and wild boars live in the forest. There are ponds in the forest park where you can swim or fish, places to eat, a campground, dozens of sculptures, gardens and many other places. It is an ideal place for outdoor walks at any time of the year. To get there, you need to take buses 674 or 910 and get to the Osiedle Paderewskiego Trzy Stawy shopping center, which is located near the Valley of Three Ponds.
Wilson Gallery
To the north of the center is a gallery of modern art, which is perhaps the best art space in Katowice. This attraction is one of the main in the city.
The buildings currently occupied by the gallery date back to 1918 and were designed by Zillman behind the residential area Nikishevets. The dilapidated shaft shaft, where excavations began back in 1864, can still be seen in the ruins behind the gallery buildings, excavation work was stopped in 1997. The owner of the gallery is Pro Inwest, which is responsible for exhibition and office space. The area around Val Wilson is filled with brightly colored outdoor sculptures that contrast sharply with the industrial environment, and also has an entrance wall full of colorful icons (which makes it hard to miss). The gallery itself consists of 2500 square meters, divided into three rooms. Exhibitions full of high-quality sculptural, graphic and installation works by both local and foreign artists are regularly replaced by permanent installations - some alarming, some playful, some political. Entrance to the gallery is free, there is a mini-buffet on site, which is great for breakfast or lunch.
There are many attractions in Katowice, come to this beautiful city and see for yourself!