Katowice is a modern space in Poland
Katowice is a former industrial town being transformed by its residents into a modern cultural center. It’s 79 km travel from Krakow to Katowice on A4 speedy autobahn.
This town having at first glance nothing attractive is worth stopping and looking around. Visit not the old part but the modern one. Modern Katowice blends several important objects within the same area, which shapes futuristic environment – public space it’s so pleasant to be in. Let’s start one by one.
Our eyes strived to go to such official and interesting building (if to listen only with ears) as International Congress Centre. It wouldn’t be indeed interesting, but for the architecture. The building view is just incredible. Graphics, materials, and colors. In two words: Very cool!
Photographers are those who appraise the like scenery. We saw here a wedding photographer and newlyweds who had their photos taken. The range of different locations here is huge.
Congress Centre building is a rectangle with a hollow in the middle with a pedestrian alley, so you can climb to the roof by common paths, relax on unusual benches and watch the Katowice landscape.
Here is the Center entrance. You may go inside to have a glance but you are forbidden to walk around. It’s also quite interesting there – you are as if in a giant cave.
It’s probably the one of the coolest Congress Centers in Poland. The one in Krakow is nice but it’s not as impressive as in Katowice.
Then, next to the Congress Center, the building of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra is located; though the title is long and difficult, the very building and the area around are minimalistic.
There is a restaurant inside the building, which mounts outdoor terrace among birches in summer.
If you go further in the same area, then you are able to face the most interesting. Silesian Museum. From a distance, going along the main road it’s unclear what there is: some weird glass rectangles and old buildings from the industrial past.
But coming closer you immediately get interested by each and every detail in the area. Cosmic plants underfoot and glass buildings (empty inside) on the sides. It’s roomily and geometrically around.
Everything is interesting and draws the eye. We first walked around the whole area. We occasionally came across some passers-by and the same wedding couple had their photos taken against the wind and cold, and withstood the photo shoot.
We saw the museum entrance and after going inside we found ourselves in white space – spacious, even too much.
Going down the long stairs one can get to the left side where there is a small library, a little coffee shop and a souvenir shop. The entrance to the exhibition rooms is at the opposite side. The Polish culture before and after the war and the like is represented there. It was uninteresting for us, so we went through a light maze to the main hall of the building.
A large piece of a Polish artist was being exhibited there. A wooden three or four-storey house covered with blue paint from outside with a hidden high room without doors inside, with only small windows and no ceiling – everything in orange colors.
The art matched our jackets, so we took several shots. And then again through the light maze did we go out.
We got to know in the museum that one can climb to the observatory tower top and purchased the tickets (in the museum) 5 zlotys each. A polite guardian lifted us in the elevator. Everything spread before the eyes from the top point. You can view the entire futuristic area of the museum and everything that is beyond it.
This museum is the second modern version of the museum about the land where Katowice is located, it’s ethnological one. To our minds, such museums are usually so boring that we would never visit them. But the fact how and on what base this one was built is worth visiting. However, we still didn’t watch museum historical artifacts).
The museum is located in the former coal mine area. The old buildings were not destroyed but restored and united into one common environment. The heart of the museum is 14 meters underground – the most precious treasures from around the land where Katowice is located are kept in the exhibition halls. And these glass rectangles are the premises’ ceiling, in such a way natural light gets inside.
Those buildings made of bricks are the restored ones and they perfectly complement the glass constructions. In one of them, where there was the engine room at the time of coal extraction, a restaurant is, which you can enter through an underground entrance (from the museum) or through a usual one from the outside. The restaurant looks very interesting from the facade, since large arched windows that are high from the floor evoke a sense of beauty. It’s only open from 12:00 and we were there earlier.
Not all old buildings managed to wait for their reconstruction and not all premises are accessible for visitors, many of them are administrative ones. But you can walk anywhere on the area.
The coal mine ceased its activities in 1999. In 2006 there was a competition for the museum design, in 2007 Austrian bureau Riegler Riewe became the winner and offered such an interesting idea of 14 meters hollow. In 2015 the complex of 7 buildings, 4 of which were above the ground, and three – underground, was officially opened.
We got plenty of aesthetic pleasure, so we recommend this place while going past Katowice.
And we had breakfast in the equally pleasant establishment called Coffe Synergia dobre miesce.
Coffee shops are not just for having a cup of coffee but also to have a bite. The Poles also share our personal passion to spending time in such environments for work and meetings. People had breakfast at almost all tables and later held business meetings or worked that morning. Such environments inspire and spur to new ideas, especially creative ones.
Visit Rzeszów, Łańcut, Krasiczyn in Poland
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