Boże Dary Mine

The Boże Dary Mine in Katowice-Kostuchna was built for the Princes of Pszczyna in 1901-1903 and was called Böer until 1937. Its site and buildings still show what an Upper Silesian industrial plant looked like in the early 20th century.

How the mine came to be

The mine was built by the Princes of Pszczyna to extract coal from the Emanuel seam, the same one worked by the mine in Murcki. Extraction began as early as 1902, and the mine took its name from the mining inspector Böer. In 1937 it was renamed Boże Dary.

Around the plant grew the Böerschächte miners' estate along today's Tadeusza Boya-Żeleńskiego Street. The development of the colony was financed by the company, and at the time it was regarded as a model workers' housing estate.

Buildings under heritage protection

The protected buildings include the office building with the pay hall, the switchgear building, the former boiler house, the bathhouse, the trade union building and workshop buildings. In 2021 shaft I was demolished.

In 1956 the mine suffered the largest mining disaster in its history, in which 24 miners and rescuers died. On the 50th anniversary a commemorative plaque was unveiled in the St Barbara's chapel on the mine grounds. From 1976 the plant formally belonged to the Murcki mine, and in 2015 part of the site was taken over by the Mine Restructuring Company (Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń).

Practical information

• Address: Tadeusza Boya-Żeleńskiego 95, Katowice-Kostuchna.
• It is best to treat the place as a site to be viewed from the street; before your visit, check whether a given part of the site is accessible.
• Nearby lies Murcki Park in Katowice, and in Murcki operated the other of the Princes of Pszczyna's mines.