Chapel of St Barbara by Silesia City Center in Katowice

The Chapel of St Barbara is a brick rectorial church in the Katowice district of Dąb, right by the Silesia City Center shopping centre. The building from 1920 is the former shaft engine house of the Eminenz mine, later Gottwald.

From mine to chapel

The Eminenz mining field was granted on 30 September 1903, construction of the mine began on 1 July 1904, and output started in 1905. From 1974 the mine was linked with the Kleofas mine, and output was halted in 2004. Silesia City Center was opened on 17 November 2005, and the chapel was blessed on 3 December 2005 by Archbishop Damian Zimoń. It became a rectorial church in 2012.

What the building looks like

It is a single-storey, unplastered brick building in the historicist style under a gable roof, measuring 18.5 by 14 metres and 11.8 metres high. It is entered in the municipal register of monuments.

Interior

In the chapel stands an altar of St Barbara from the Kleofas mine and a statuette of the patron saint of miners from the Gottwald mine. The Stations of the Cross were made by Mariusz Pałka, and in 2018 the organ was moved from the Higher Silesian Theological Seminary. Adoration without a monstrance is possible at the tabernacle.

Nearby

It is about 1.6 km to the Silesian Zoological Garden, and not far away stands also the Monument to the Silesian Insurgents.

Practical information

• Address according to the chapel's website: ul. Chorzowska 109, Katowice.
• Mass and adoration times are given on the chapel's website. Check the current schedule before your visit.
• This is an active church; arrange a visit outside services on the spot.