ROUTE 1. FROM VILLAGE TO PROVINCIAL CAPITAL

This walk will show us how Katowice grew over time, from a village "in the middle of nowhere" to a capital of an autonomous province in the inter-war period; we will look at the milestones marking the growing importance of the town: the city hall, the county government building, the provincial government buildings, the cathedral. We will start at the Central Place (Rynek), and the route is as follows: Central Place - Warszawska Street - Damrota Street - Wojewódzka Street - Francuska Street - Jagiellonska Street -Powstanców Street.

As we stand in front of the Silesian Theatre (designed by Carl Moritz in 1907) let us unwind our imagination: at the site of the "Skarbek" department store there probably used to stand the inn, depicted in Friedrich W. Knippel's etching. Behind the Bank Slaski building was a pond and the famous smithy which was first mentioned in 1486. The smithy's hammer was incorporated in the coat of arms of the village, and later, of the town.
The village of Katowice was established in 1580, but some parts of today's town date back to the Middle Ages (Dab was first mentioned in 1299, Bogucice, Zaleze and Rozdzien - in 1360). In 1838 the Katowice estate was purchased by Franciszek Winckler, owner of a score mines and a dozen foundries and land estates. 3 years later he moved the head offices of his industrial and agricultural business to Katowice . That was the beginning of the string of changes which led to promoting Katowice to the rank of town (1865). All that has remained from the oldest days is historical records, some street names ( Stawowa Street led to the pond, which is "staw" in Polish) and the effigy of St. John Nepomuk between the Central Place and Sw. Jana Street . One of the decisive moments in the town's development was in 1846 when the railway line from Wroclaw to the state boundary in Myslowice (and further East to Kraków) reached Katowice . The first spatial layout for Katowice was developed in 1856. On of its remnants is the section: Liberty Place (pl. Wolnosci) - 3 Maja Street - Central Place (Rynek).

3 Maja Street , at that time called Panska or Glówna Street , was made up of two-storey houses.
The Central Place (Rynek) looked no different. What we can see today is an outcome of the subsequent growth, especially at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

In 1865 Katowice was granted a town charter (after a decade of effort), and rapid growth followed: all the important institutions, authorities, schools, shops and banks were installed there. Eight years later Katowice became the seat of county authorities.

As we stand in the middle of the Central Place we can trace back the history of the city halls: the first had stood at the site where the theatre was built later on. The next one stood in the Southern frontage of today's Warszawska Street , and it was burnt down and demolished in 1945. The third city hall was built in 1930 at 4, Mlynska Street (designed by Tadeusz Lobos, Leon Dietz d' Arrna and Ludwik Sikorski).

After the historical reflection we go on down Warszawska Street . On the left hand side is the Evangelical Church of Lord's Resurrection built in 1858 (designed by Richard Lucae), the oldest surviving building in the town, and next to it - a school built in 1860. Several blocks down the street is the Catholic Church of St. Mary the Virgin's Immaculate Conception, built in 1870 (designed by Alexis Langer), the first parish church in Katowice.

Before we take a right turn in Damrota Street , let us walk a few more paces down Warszawska Street ; at No. 45 stands the building of the former county authority built in 1875 (at present the Regional Court and the Labour Agency), rebuilt in its present Neo-Renaissance shape in 1936 (after a design by Franciszek Krzywda-Polkowski). It houses a magnificent conference room with allegorical paintings by Felicjan Szczesny-Kowarski.

We now go back to Damrota Street , and we follow it till we reach the intersection with Wojewódzka Street . In front of us is the impressive Neo-Gothic building of the Musical Academy , built in 1898 for the Royal School of Building Crafts. In our hike across the history of Katowice it is a very important landmark: it opens the chapter in which Katowice appears as the capital of a province.

Despite its quick growth, in the early 20th century Katowice was but one of many county towns in the Prussian Regency of Opole. Things could only change when World War I was over and the victorious powers decided to have a plebiscite in Upper Silesia in order to decide whether the region was to be incorporated into Germany or into the independent Poland .

Following the plebiscite and the division of Upper Silesia , a new province was established within the Polish state. The Act of Polish Parliament dated 15 July 1920 granted the province significant autonomy; the region could independently decide most of its affairs, apart from foreign policy, military policy, borne affairs and those which were to be regulated by the Parliament of the Polish Republic. The new Silesian province (województwo), of an area of 4216 km2, came into being in June of 1922, with the Silesian Parliament (Sejm Slaski) as its chief legislative body. It was a unique institution, unprecedented in Polish, German or Austrian legislation.

The decision of the Council of Ambassadors which divided Upper Silesia in such a manner that Bytom and Gliwice remained on the German side promoted Katowice to the rank of capital of the autonomous Silesian province. It was the site of the major ceremonies to celebrate the appropriation of Upper Silesia by Poland , and it became the seat of provincial authorities, notably the Silesian Parliament. The Neo-Gothic building of the former Royal School of Building Crafts became the first seat of the Silesian Parliament, the Silesian Governor (Wojewoda), the Silesian Provincial Council and the Silesian Provincial Authority (Urzad Wojewódzki, which explains the street name); the farmer school auditorium became the parliament's assembly hall.

One of the first resolutions of the Silesian Parliament was to advertise a competition for the construction of a suitable edifice to house the Parliament and the Provincial Authority. The jury selected a design by a team of Kraków based architects, Jurkiewicz, Wojtyczko, Wyczynski and Zelenski.

After seven years in office in Wojewódzka Street the authorities moved to the new building in the block between the streets: Jagiellonska, Lompy, Ligonia and Rejmonta.

Let us walk over to the new parliament building, too: we will go down Damrota Street to the Catholic cemetery and further, to Francuska Street , down the cemetery's main alley. It is the resting place of the most distinguished citizens of Upper Silesia and Katowice: Wojciech Korfanty - member of parliament, Polish plebiscite commissioner, dictator of the 3rd Silesian Uprising; Józef Rymer - the first governor (wojewoda) of Silesia, Jerzy Zietek - a governor. In the South-west corner of the cemetery stands the tall tomb of the last Polish chief of the village of Katowice , Kazimierz Skiba.

We turn from Francuska Street to Jagiellonska Street and Sejmu Slaskiego Square (Plac Sejmu Slaskiego), to arrive in front of the farmer Silesian Parliament and Provincial Authority. It was built in a monument al Classicist manner, and the design of the Assembly Hall was partly modeled on classical theatre and on similar buildings in Paris or Vienna .

The building consists of a four-wing main body, with prominent breaks in the corners. The main body houses the assembly hall, which is connected to the Western elevation. The Western wall incorporates the main entrance, which then leads through a domed vestibule to two flights of stairs. The landing on the first floor leads to the corridors and to the assembly hall of the Silesian Parliament, the entrance on the second floor leads to the galleries.

The vestibule is reminiscent of a patio in an Italian palazzo and immediately brings to mind a Renaissance palace, like the Wawel in Kraków. That was a deliberate designer effect, to render the building more monumental.

The decor of the vestibule and assembly hall was designed by Professor Jan Raszka. The vestibule dome is decorated with the coats of arms of same towns of the Silesian province: Katowice , Bielsko, Rybnik , Bierun Stary, Wodzislaw Slaski, Skoczów, Cieszyn, Miasteczko Slaskie, Lubliniec, Pszczyna and Myslowice.

Other monumental buildings were erected aside the Parliament complex in the thirties, to emphasise the importance of Katowice as capital of the province: the house of the Nonaggregated Offices was built in 1937 at Sejmu Slaskiego Square (designed by Lucjan Sikorski) - today it is the Languages Department of the Silesian University ; the building of the Syndicate of Polish Iron Works was built at Lompy Street in 1928 (designed by Lucjan Sikorski); a very modern building of the Silesian Museum was built in 1939 at Jagiellonska Street (designed by Karol Schayer), but was demolished during Nazi occupation. It was replaced in 1955 by the Trade Unions House (designed by Henryk Buszko and Aleksander Franta).

The exceptional position of Katowice in the pre-war period was highlighted by the buildings or facilities that were first of its kind, or at least pioneering; thus, Poland 's first "skyscraper", commissioned in 1932, was located in Katowice at Zwirki i Wigury Street ; the town had Poland 's first artificial ice rink; and in 1930 Katowice came second, after Poznan , as a town with its own fair.

Coming back to our historical walk around Katowice, we now go down Lompy Street, reach Powstanców Street and take a turn to the right, passing, as we go, the building of the farmer Ministry of Mining and Energy; on our left, at the intersection with Sienkiewicza Street, is the house in which Wojciech Korfanty lived before the war.

Further down in Powstanców Street we come to the impressive Neo-Renaissance Cathedral of Christ the King (designed by Zygmunt Gawlik and Franciszek Maczynski).

The cathedral was the outcome of an architectural competition; its construction lasted for nearly 3 O years (the work commenced in 1927, the cathedral was consecrated in 1955). It, too, reinforces the status of Katowice as a capital - this time as the capital of a bishopric. In 1925 pope Pius XI established the diocese of Katowice , and the first bishop appointed was August Hlond, later the Primate of Poland. The first cathedral church in the new diocese was the church of St. Peter and Paul the Apostles in Mikolowska Street (built in 1902, designed by Joseph Ebers). In 1957, as the construction of the cathedral of Christ the King was completed, the seat of the bishop was transferred there; since 1992, when the metro polis of Katowice was established, it has been an Arch-cathedral.

The prim interior has few highlights: the sculptures of Cardinal August Hlond (designed by Zygmunt Brachmanski), and of Christ the King of the Universe (designed by Jerzy Kwiatkowski), and two applications - the creation and the end of the world (designed by Teresa Michalowska). Behind the cathedral stand the buildings of the curia and of the Archbishop's palace.

After a visit to the cathedral we can go down Wita Stwosza Street , Kochanowskiego Street and sw. Jana Street to the Central Place , closing the loop of our walk.