Culture
a library founded in 1922, since 1998 in a building designed by the ARAR group
Culture
late 19th-century brick and steel station, today a library and cultural centre
Culture
modernist library building from 1973 with the sculpture “Poczytaj mi mamo”
Culture
modern academic library from 2012 in the Culture Zone, with reading rooms and exhibitions
Culture
a library with a café, a gallery and cinema rooms in a building on the Market Square
Culture
a historic tenement house with a research library, the Szersznik book collection and an exhibition gallery
Libraries in Silesia include six places in Katowice, Bielsko-Biała, Jaworzno, Ruda Śląska and Cieszyn that are worth seeing as buildings too.
The overview shows libraries that, besides lending books, have striking architecture, galleries, cafés or events. It makes a good plan for a quiet day on your own, and under a reading-room roof the weather does not matter.
Katowice has two libraries of very different character in this overview: a regional one and an academic one.
The Silesian Library was founded in 1922 and has occupied its building on Plac Rady Europy 1 since 1998. It is a regional public library with scientific status, collecting materials on Upper Silesia, the Dąbrowa Basin and the social sciences. The Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library on Bankowa Street 11a is the joint library of two Katowice universities: Silesia and Economics. Its modern building of 2012 has reading rooms and also hosts cultural events.
Beyond the regional capital, four libraries deserve a look, each with a different story: a modernist building of the 1970s, a new building by a market square, a railway station and a house known as the mint.
In Bielsko-Biała the Książnica Beskidzka sits at Słowackiego 17A in a modernist building of 1973. In Jaworzno the Municipal Public Library has existed since 16 January 1949. Since 2007 it has used a new building at Rynek Główny 17, with a gallery, a café and cinema halls.
The Stacja Biblioteka in Ruda Śląska, the main seat of the city library, is arranged in an unusual setting. It occupies the historic Ruda Chebzie station of 1897-1899, opened after restoration in 2019, and trains still stop here. The site lies on the Industrial Monuments Route. In Cieszyn the Książnica Cieszyńska works in a house at Mennicza 46, looks after the town's historic book collections, including the Szersznik holdings, and has its own exhibition gallery.
Stacja Biblioteka in Ruda Śląska. After restoration, the historic Ruda Chebzie station from the late nineteenth century serves as the main seat of the city library.
Scientific status belongs to the regional Silesian Library. It collects materials on Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin.
Yes. The Książnica Cieszyńska has its own exhibition gallery, and the library in Jaworzno has a gallery, a café and cinema halls.
Yes, the Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library on Bankowa Street. Two Katowice universities use it.
