40 Facts About Katowice

1.

Katowice is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area.

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2.

Katowice is a central part of the Metropolis GZM, with a population of 2.

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3.

Katowice is home to several institutions of higher learning, notably the University of Silesia, the Silesian University of Technology and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music.

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4.

Katowice gained city status on 11 September 1865 in the Prussian Province of Silesia, by the act of the king Wilhelm I Hohenzollern.

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5.

In 1882, the Upper Silesian Coal and Steelworks Company moved its headquarters to Katowice, followed by creation of the Upper Silesian Coal Convention in 1898.

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6.

Postwar period of Katowice was characterised by the time of heavy industry development in the Upper Silesian region, which helped the city in regaining its status as the most industrialised Polish city and a major administrative centre.

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7.

Katowice eventually developed into one of the most modernist post-war cities of Poland.

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8.

The economy of Katowice has been transforming from the heavy industry of steel and coal mines into "one of the most attractive investment areas for modern economy branches in Central Europe".

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9.

Katowice has a temperate, ocean-moderated humid continental climate .

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10.

Katowice is a centre of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, with a population of approx.

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11.

Katowice's population grew very fast between 1845 and 1960, fueled by the expansion of heavy industry and administrative functions.

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12.

Katowice is a seat of a diocesan Catholic seminary, as well as one of the Order of Friars Minor.

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13.

Katowice Archdiocese owns several media companies headquartered in Katowice: Ksiegarnia sw.

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14.

Gosc Niedzielny, owned by Instytut Gosc Media and published in Katowice, is currently the most-popular Catholic magazine in the country with approx.

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15.

Lutherans have two churches in Katowice, including a cathedral, which is the oldest church built originally in Katowice, completed on 29 September 1858.

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16.

Dr Jacob Cohn was the first rabbi of Katowice, appointed to this function on 6 January 1872 and holding it until 1920s.

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17.

The Great Synagogue was burned by the German army the same day, and in the following months, Katowice Jews were deported to ghettos in Dabrowa Basin or directly to various concentration and death camps where most of them perished in the Holocaust.

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18.

Unlike most other large Polish cities, Katowice did not originate as a medieval town, therefore it does not have an old town with a street layout and architectural styles characteristic to cities founded on Magdeburg rights.

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19.

Katowice's urban layout is a result of expansion and annexation of various towns, industrial worker estates, and villages.

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20.

In 1922, Katowice and the eastern portion of Upper Silesia were reintegrated with reborn Poland, and an autonomous Silesian Voivodeship was established, with Katowice as its capital.

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21.

The largest development of the 1950s in Katowice was the expansion of the Koszutka neighborhood, in the socialist realist style, in early 1950s.

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22.

The collective, called Miastoprojekt Katowice, came up with a design heavily influenced by Le Corbusier's ideas.

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23.

Katowice has been classified as a Gamma - global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network and is considered as an emerging metropolis.

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24.

Katowice has a diversified economy with one of the strongest job markets in Poland.

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25.

Katowice is a large business, convention and trade fair centre.

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26.

Katowice is headquarters to 18 public companies traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, with total market value of PLN 24.

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27.

Since its creation, Katowice's development was tightly connected to heavy industry, especially coal mining, steelworks and machine production.

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28.

Katowice is the seat of Polska Grupa Gornicza, the largest coal mining corporation in Europe.

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29.

Since mid-2000s, Katowice has established a strategy to redevelop the post-industrial areas using culture - the pinnacle of which was a massive development on the site of a former coal mine known as Strefa Kultury, where numerous cultural and convention institutions are located.

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30.

Katowice is the seat of an internationally renowned Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, whose faculty and graduates created the nationally important informal group called the Silesian school of composers.

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31.

Teatr Slaski is the oldest still-functioning theater in Katowice, first opened for audience in 1907 and located on the main square.

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32.

Katowice is home to many nationally and internationally renowned popular music festivals.

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33.

City History Museum of Katowice exhibitions include: immersive typical urban apartments from early 20th century, naive art paintings from local artists and the history of Katowice from a village to an industrial center.

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34.

BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice, established in 1949, is a notable institution concerning the Contemporary arts.

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35.

The network in Katowice is mostly located in the northern part of the city has a star-like shape, with most lines converging on the Rynek square and expanding to all directions.

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36.

Katowice has a direct Express Intercity Premium connection to Warsaw through the Centralna Magistrala Kolejowa, with a run time of 2 hours 21 minutes.

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37.

Katowice has a modern international bus station located close to the city center.

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38.

Katowice has a ring around its city center, consisting of highway A4, Murckowska freeway, Drogowa Trasa Srednicowa that partly goes in a tunnel underground and Bochenskiego road.

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39.

Many of the roads and freeways in Katowice expand radially from the city center and replaced old local roads.

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40.

Katowice is within an hour drive from Krakow Airport, which offers additional destinations and airlines such as Amsterdam, Paris, Helsinki, Chicago and Newark, Copenhagen and Stockholm and Zurich .

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