19th-Century Sławków Rolling Mill

The Sławków rolling mill is a former rolling and casting works on the Biała Przemsza in Sławków, which operated in 1826-1888. The surviving buildings are entered in the heritage register.

What it was for

The works came into being in 1825-1826 as a government investment and was, after the rolling mill in Białogon, the second factory of this kind in the Kingdom of Poland. The main building stood over a channel 6 m wide and 500 m long, along which flowed the water that drove the wheels with the rolls. After extensions three wheels worked here, each driving two rolls. In 1841 the works processed a third of the zinc from the government ironworks of the Kingdom and made zinc sheet from it, mainly for roofing. Its second speciality was large iron castings.

The settlement and the end of production

Beside the rolling mill grew the workers' housing estate "Walcownia", which towards the end of the works' existence had 61 houses and 626 inhabitants. The works then employed 136 workers. It was closed in 1888, because rolling was by then developing near the ironworks, in the area of today's Dąbrowa Górnicza and Będzin.

What remains

The heritage register (no. 1251/81 of 1981) lists the building of the former main hall of the zinc-sheet rolling mill, a former warehouse, now residential, and a residential building. The complex also includes remains of the drive system: the inflow and outflow channel with the remains of sluices on the Biała Przemsza. A visit combines well with the synagogue in Sławków and the Regional Museum, both less than a kilometre from the rolling mill.

Practical information

• Village: Sławków, Będzin County.
• Some of the buildings are in residential use, so the structures are viewed from outside; check the rules of access before your visit.