page_title: Katowice
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Katowice / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: Nikiszowiec
context_page_description: Katowice is a city in southern Poland, the capital city of the Silesian Region, and a center of the Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin Metropolis. With the population of 292,774, it is the eleventh-largest city in Poland. The wider Katowice urban area has the population of approximately 2 to 3 million people.
  Throughout the mid-18th century, Katowice had developed into a village upon the discovery of rich coal reserves in the area. In 1742 the First Silesian War transferred Upper Silesia, including Katowice, to Prussia. Subsequently, from the second half of the 18th century, many German or Prussian craftsmen, merchants and artists began to settle in the region, which had been inhabited mostly by Poles over the past hundreds of years. Simultaneously Silesia experienced the influx of the first Jewish settlers. In the first half of the 19th century, intensive industrialization transformed local mills and farms into industrial steelworks, mines, foundries and artisan workshops. This also contributed to the establishment of companies and eventual rapid growth of the city.
context_section_description: Katowice did not originate as a medieval town. The city centre was beginning to form in the mid-19th century when it was part of the Kingdom of Prussia and had an ethnic German majority. The buildings of the time are decorated in an eclectic style (mostly Renaissance with elements of Baroque) and elements of Art Nouveau style (Polish: secesja). By the end of the nineteenth century the centre was being referred to as a "little Paris" due to the presence of Parisian-styled tenement houses. Examples of Modernism, especially International Style and Bauhaus inspired architecture, still coexist with modern office buildings in central Katowice. Between the 1950s and 1980s many socialist apartment blocks were constructed around the inner suburbs. Notable examples from that period include a multipurpose arena complex called Spodek and parts of Koszutka district.
  Katowice is one of the few cities in Poland where nearly all architectural styles are present. For instance, the Market square in Katowice (Polish: Rynek Katowicki) is surrounded by a vast majority of buildings and edifices representing styles such as neoclassicism, modernism, socialist realism and contemporary-modern. Some tenements have neogothic elements, which are an outstanding example of this type in Central and Eastern Europe. The street outlines, especially within the older inner districts, closely resemble the ones in Paris. Representational boulevards and promenades were established despite the city's strong industrial character. These, however, mostly adorned the city center and not working-class outer suburbs.
  Unfortunately many old majestic buildings were demolished in the 1950s to make space for monumental modern blocks. Among other reasons for their destruction was the immense architectural detail which once represented the wealth of local industrialists and property owners. This particularly didn't fit in with the Socialist-Communist authority at the time.
  Today, the marketplace and several nearby streets with shopping promenades are closed to traffic.
caption: Nikiszowiec
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