Bolesław Chrobry Square in Katowice

Bolesław Chrobry Square (Plac Bolesława Chrobrego) lies in the centre of Katowice, on the south side of the railway tracks, between Jagiellońska, Józefa Lompy and Władysława Reymonta streets. On the north it is closed off by the building of today's Marshal's Office of the Silesian Voivodeship.

The former Silesian Museum

In the interwar period a modern building of the Silesian Museum stood here, designed by Karol Schayer of Lviv and regarded as one of the most modern facilities of its kind in Europe. The Germans demolished it in 1941 as a symbol of Polishness in Katowice. Its memory is preserved by the Silesian Eagles obelisk, on which two Piast eagles take flight. Today's Silesian Museum is located in another part of the city.

Buildings and sculptures

The building of the former Voivodeship Council of Trade Unions was built in 1953-1955 to a design by Henryk Buszko and Aleksander Franta and is today the seat of the Marshal's Office. The square also has a monument to Józef Piłsudski, unveiled in 1993, the work of the Croatian sculptor Antun Augustinčić. During the war the square bore the German name Barbarossaplatz, and until the 1990s an illuminated fountain in the shape of a vesica piscis operated here.

Practical information

• The square is a public space, free entry.
• In the neighbourhood are, among others, the voivodeship office and the Faculty of Biology of the University of Silesia.
• It is about half a kilometre to the Cathedral of Christ the King.