The city's central market square is not lined with historical burghers' houses as you’d find elsewhere in Silesia, but is instead encircled by drab postwar blocks and newer retail developments. It’s a showpiece of the 'early Gierek style' – the term Poles sarcastically give to architecture spawned during the fleeting period of apparent prosperity in the early 1970s, when Edward Gierek's communist government took out hefty loans from the West with the fanciful aim of making Poland a 'second Japan'.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial & Museum
17.89 MILES
Auschwitz-Birkenau is synonymous with the Holocaust. More than a million Jews, and many Poles and Roma, were murdered here by German Nazis during WWII…
18.01 MILES
Auschwitz I was only partially destroyed by the fleeing Germans, and many of the original brick buildings stand to this day as a bleak testament to the…
16.98 MILES
Though much of Birkenau was destroyed by the retreating Germans, the size of the place, fenced off with long lines of barbed wire and watchtowers…
0.67 MILES
A symbol of Katowice's transition from a centre of heavy industry to one of culture, the Silesian Museum sits in an ingeniously repurposed coal mine in…
Museum of Katowice History at Nikiszowiec
2.88 MILES
This branch of Katowice's museum, an ethnographic exploration of working-class and industrial life in Upper Silesia, lies in the distinctive suburb of…
19.75 MILES
This grandiose ducal residence dates back to the 12th century, when the Opole dukes built a hunting lodge here. Rebuilt as a Renaissance palace in the…
0.55 MILES
With a base measuring 89m by 53m, this is Poland's largest cathedral. Erected between 1927 and 1955, the neoclassical sandstone basilica's progress was…
Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park
3.27 MILES
This sprawling open-air museum contains scores of traditional wooden buildings spread over 20 hectares, representing architectural styles from Upper…
Nearby Katowice attractions
1. Garrison Church of St Casimir the Prince
0.43 MILES
A functionalist concrete-and-brick affair with lovely art deco interiors, it was built between 1930 and 1933 (the year before the skyscraper opposite,…
0.49 MILES
This blocky, 14-storey, 60m-high apartment building was Poland’s tallest building from 1934 until 1955. Considered the purest example of functionalism in…
0.49 MILES
Built of reinforced concrete between 1964 and 1971, Spodek – which means 'saucer' – really does look like a UFO has landed just north of central Katowice…
4. Cathedral of Christ the King
0.55 MILES
With a base measuring 89m by 53m, this is Poland's largest cathedral. Erected between 1927 and 1955, the neoclassical sandstone basilica's progress was…
0.59 MILES
Spread over two floors, this museum showcases sacral art from the late 14th century to the present day, including some beautiful Gothic altarpieces. Entry…
0.67 MILES
A symbol of Katowice's transition from a centre of heavy industry to one of culture, the Silesian Museum sits in an ingeniously repurposed coal mine in…
7. Museum of Katowice History at Nikiszowiec
2.88 MILES
This branch of Katowice's museum, an ethnographic exploration of working-class and industrial life in Upper Silesia, lies in the distinctive suburb of…
8. Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park
3.27 MILES
This sprawling open-air museum contains scores of traditional wooden buildings spread over 20 hectares, representing architectural styles from Upper…