Katowice description, location, history

Katowice description, location, history

Katowice is a capital city of Śląskie Voivodeship (Silesian Province) located in southern Poland; it is the largest city of the Silesian Agglomeration, in Polish known as GOP (Upper Silesian Industrial Region), and one of the most important cultural, academic and economic centres in Poland.

The first reference to the village of Katowice appears in the notes of the Polish priest, Krzysztof Kazimierski, who visited the Bogucice parish in 1598. However, the history of the city is marked by the events that took place in several Slavic agricultural settlements dating from the 14th and 16th centuries and in the smithies; today they constitute the city districts.

The development of the village of Katowice started in 1846 with the opening of the Mysłowice-Wrocław railway line. Taking over the land property by the Winckler family was of considerable importance to the development of Katowice. Visitors were coming to those settlements which extended along both sides of the Rawa River to do business. Franz Winckler, a foreman and later a mining enterpreneur, changed the neighbouring villages into an industrial town. The man who succesfully implemented Winckler's plan was Friedriech Wilhelm Grundmann, who in 1839 was appointed to a post of a director of the Katowice estate management.

In 1889, a dynamic concern "Kattowitzer Aktien-Gesselschaft" was established in Katowice; at the turn of the century, five well known banks were opened. The industry, especially steelworks and mines, started to develop during the period of the Prussian occupation (from 1742); it flourished in the 19th century. Thanks to the few institutions which were established at the end of the century the new economic centre developed; among many there were: Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Upper Silesian Association of Mining and Steel Works Manufacturers, coal minings, National Board of the Post Offices, District Court and Prussian Royal Railway Directory.

The newest history of Katowice is connected not only with the industrial and urban development but also with a large infrastructure and social negligence. One of the most tragic events in the post-war history of Katowice was the pacification of the miners who were protesting in the "Wujek" mine after the introduction of the marital law ( from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983). On December 16, 1981 nine strikers were shot. The cross at the mine gate is the monument commemorating this tragic event.