For children
open-air museum in the Silesian Park with cottages, churches and an inn from Upper Silesia and the Basin
Culture
Poland's largest and oldest planetarium, with a 23 m dome and an underground science park
Parks and nature
stone gate with a lion from Świerklaniec, since the 1950s the entrance to the Chorzów zoo
Industrial heritage
a reinforced-concrete winding tower from 1933, 42.5 m high, a viewpoint on the Industrial Monuments Route
For children
garden of 47.5 ha in the Silesian Park with the Dinosaur Valley, an exotarium, an aquarium and an elephant house
Theatre and opera
musical theatre in the former Graf Reden hotel, with its own acting company, ballet and orchestra
Parks and nature
park on former spoil heaps, with a zoo, rosarium, planetarium and cable car, covering about 535 ha
Parks and nature
post-industrial reservoirs and subsidence hollows, today a bird refuge with 9.5 km of surfaced paths
Entertainment
indoor track 630 m long on two levels, with karts for adults and juniors
Places with character
a Vekoma steel roller coaster in Legendia, themed on the legend of Lech and the Piast stronghold
For children
amusement park descended from a funfair of 1959, with roller coasters and themed zones
Places with character
a square with a 19th-century town hall, a flyover and a tram interchange after rebuilding
Places with character
stadium from 1956 under a roof of 43,000 m², home of the national team and of concerts
Parks and nature
a city park with a rose garden and two ponds in a former sand pit, laid out in 1926-1930
Churches and monasteries
neo-Gothic sandstone church with a clock tower and stained glass, the first Catholic church in the town
Parks and nature
rose garden from 1968 with honeycomb-shaped flower beds and about 300 rose varieties
Parks and nature
a forest complex with lowland beech forest and rare plants on the border of Chorzów and Ruda Śląska
Churches and monasteries
Neo-Romanesque brick church of 1874, with two towers added in 1908
Churches and monasteries
larch church of 1599 moved from Knurów to Liberation Hill
graduation tower by the von Reden monument, added to Plac Hutników during the revitalisation
Parks and nature
a narrow-gauge railway in the Silesian Park, running with breaks since 1957
Mountains
cable car over the Silesian Park with chairs and gondolas, successor to the 1967 route
three puzzle rooms for 2-5 players, from a story-driven one for beginners to adventure rooms
Historic sites
Neo-Baroque town hall from 1909-1911, former seat of the Bismarckhütte authorities, later of the police
Things to do in Chorzów: Silesian Park with its zoo and planetarium, Legendia, industry museums, churches and fifty more places.
Chorzów is a city where one huge park takes up most of a visit, but the districts are interesting too: the Centrum with the former Königshütte, Batory and Chorzów Stary. There are places for children, couples and solo visitors, ideas for wet weather and churches from several periods.
Begin with the Silesian Park: the zoo, planetarium, rose garden, open-air museum and Elka cable car are all in one place. Spend the rest of the day in the centre, where the Market Square, the town hall and the Teatr Rozrywki wait. Leave the districts and churches for a second day.
Chorzów splits into several distinct areas. The Silesian Park covers about 535 ha and lies next to the border with Katowice. In the Centrum, the former Königshütte, stand the Market Square, the town hall, the theatre and two parks. Batory and Chorzów Stary have churches of their own, and Batory also has a former town hall. On the edges lie green enclaves: Żabie Doły and the Uroczysko Buczyna.
The Silesian Park was begun in 1950 on post-industrial land and is now one of the largest city parks in Europe. It holds a zoological garden, a planetarium, a rose garden, an open-air museum, a stadium and an amusement park. Its origins are told in the article Park Śląski w Chorzowie: od decyzji z 1950 roku do 535 hektarów, and the place itself is on the page for the Silesian Park.
The Silesian Zoological Garden at Promenada Ziętka 7 covers 47.5 ha and has operated since 1958. Its trademark is the Dinosaur Valley with concrete reconstructions of reptiles, and the collection includes pavilions for exotic animals, an aquarium, monkeys and elephants, plus a Mini ZOO where some animals can be fed. At the entrance stands a stone gate with a cast-iron lion, moved in the 1950s from the palace in Świerklaniec.
The Silesian Planetarium is the biggest and earliest planetarium in the country. It dates from 1955 and stands on a rise known as Góra Parkowa; since 2022 it has operated as the Planetarium - Silesian Science Park with exhibitions on astronomy, seismology and meteorology. Beside it stands the granite monument to Nicolaus Copernicus of 1964, about four metres tall, by Jerzy Bandura.
The Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park is an open-air museum of about 33 ha, opened in 1975. It holds some seventy-eight buildings from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries from Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin. One of them is the timber Church of St Joseph the Worker of 1791, moved from Nieboczowy. More such places are described in Skanseny i zagrody Śląska. Next to the museum lies Reden Hill Park on a hill 321 m above sea level, with a monument to Count von Reden from 1853.
The Rosarium opened in 1968 and grows about three hundred varieties of roses in a honeycomb layout. Themed gardens of the region are gathered in Ogrody botaniczne, arboreta i ogrody tematyczne Śląska. The modernist Kapelusz exhibition hall of 1968, shaped like a lady's hat, is also known as the Flower Hall.
A park railway launched in 1957, a narrow-gauge line that carries passengers around the park, and above it runs the year-round Elka cable car, opened in 1967 as the longest lowland cable car in Europe and rebuilt from 2013. The Silesian Stadium opened in 1956; footballers of the national team and of Ruch Chorzów take the pitch here, and in summer large concerts are held on it. Since 2017 the stands have had a roof.
Legendia and the karting track give the most thrills, while trampolines and an escape room offer calmer entertainment. In wet weather the indoor halls work well. The places lie in different parts of the city.
Legendia is an amusement park inside the Silesian Park, covering about 26 ha. It started in 1959 under the name Silesian Funfair and has had its present name and theme since 2017. Its showpiece is the Lech Coaster, a steel roller coaster by Vekoma with a first drop of up to 105 degrees and three inversions, themed on the legend of Lech; according to the operator the train reaches 96 km/h. E1Gokart at ulica Narutowicza 9 has an indoor track 630 metres long on two levels in a hall of 3,300 m², so driving does not depend on the weather. Karts are available for adults, juniors and two-seaters. For groups of friends there is the escape room Strych at ulica Stalowa 17 with three puzzle rooms; completing all of them takes about two hundred minutes.
Chorzów shows three faces of industry: steelworks, mines and urban regeneration. The newest stop is the Metallurgy Museum, and the others are historic shafts that you can walk around.
The Metallurgy Museum at ulica Metalowców 4A occupies the brick hall of the former power station of the Kościuszko steelworks from 1891; it has been open to visitors since 26 November 2021. It is the first museum of iron and steel metallurgy in Poland. The Prezydent shaft is a winding tower of reinforced concrete built in 1932-1933 and measuring 42.5 m; a viewing platform crowns it, and it belongs to the Route of Industrial Monuments. The Elżbieta shaft complex at ulica Siemianowicka 64 consists of Neo-Gothic buildings of the Król mine that look like a small castle with crenellated parapets; today it houses a party venue. Other sites are listed under industry and technology in Chorzów.
The centre is the former Königshütte, a town founded in 1868. The town hall, the renovated Market Square and a musical theatre make the strongest impression.
The town hall at Rynek 1 was built in 1874-1876, and its present look comes from the rebuilding of 1927-1929; it has a tower and stained glass in the council chamber. The Market Square in the Centrum district is crossed by a flyover of 1979, and since the rebuilding of 2017-2019 it serves as a transfer hub and meeting place. Until 1905 trading took place here, then the market moved to a new market hall. The Teatr Rozrywki at ulica Katowicka 62 is a musical theatre that has operated since 1985, with its own acting company, ballet and orchestra; the building was put up before the Second World War by Franz Oppavsky, and it held the Graf Reden hotel, regarded as the most exclusive in town. Check its programme in the calendar of events in Chorzów.
On Plac Hutników stands a brine graduation tower, set up during the renewal of 2018-2020 next to the monument to von Reden. Similar places are collected in the article Tężnie solankowe i pijalnie wód na Śląsku. In Batory stands the Neo-Baroque former town hall of 1909-1911, once the seat of the Bismarckhütte municipality; the club from this district is the subject of Ruch Chorzów.
Beyond the Silesian Park the city has parks of very different character, from historic to wild. Most are free. Two lie on the border with neighbouring cities.
The Rose Park covers about 10 ha, was laid out in 1926-1930 and has a geometric rose garden and two ponds in a former sandpit, Mały and Duży Leopold. The oldest park in the city is Hutników Park from the 1870s, about 2.5 ha, entered in the register of monuments. The wild areas are Żabie Doły, a nature and landscape complex of 226.2 ha where Chorzów, Bytom and Piekary Śląskie meet, important for waterbirds, and the Uroczysko Buczyna, 65.32 ha of beech wood on the border with Ruda Śląska. Other green enclaves are described in Rezerwaty i zielone enklawy w miastach GZM, and a list of parks is on the page for parks and nature in Chorzów.
Chorzów has over a dozen churches, from a sixteenth-century timber one to modernist ones of the twentieth century. The most interesting are the Neo-Gothic towers and the churches of the 1930s. It is enough to pick a district.
The Church of St Barbara at ulica 3 Maja 18 is a Neo-Gothic church of hewn sandstone, consecrated in 1852, with a clock tower. In Chorzów Stary, on a hill, stands the Church of St Mary Magdalene of 1889-1892 with a tower 75 metres high, built on the site of five earlier churches. In Batory rises the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of 1898-1901, with a tower 73 m tall, which can hold about five thousand people. Neo-Romanesque are the Church of St Hedwig of Silesia on ulica Wolności 53 and the Basilica of St Joseph of 1904-1907 with a clock tower 51 m high. The brick cemetery chapel of 1898 was designed by Ludwig Schneider.
The timber Church of St Lawrence of 1599 was moved from Knurów to Chorzów in 1935-1938; it stands on Góra Wyzwolenia and lies on the Wooden Architecture Trail. Modernist are the Church of St Anthony of Padua of 1930-1934, with round windows 5.5 metres across, the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Batory of 1937-1939, and the Church of the Holy Spirit on the Osiedle Ruch of 1957-1963, whose form echoes the chapel at Ronchamp. Every church is listed under churches and monasteries in Chorzów.
With children it is best to start with the zoo, the open-air museum and the planetarium; on a rainy day choose a hall, the planetarium or the theatre.
HOPSA at ulica Gałeczki 59 is an indoor trampoline and play park for children from the smallest to teenagers; the trampolines are meant for children aged four to fourteen. Older children and adults can head for the indoor karting track, and families can spend a day in Legendia and the Silesian Park. Ideas for the weather are gathered under things to do in Chorzów when it rains and places for families.
Devote the day to the Silesian Park: the zoo, planetarium, rose garden and open-air museum. In the evening return to the centre for the Market Square or the Teatr Rozrywki.
Yes, the Silesian Park has the Silesian Planetarium of 1955, the earliest and biggest in the country. Its newer part holds exhibitions on the stars, earthquakes and weather.
Choose the planetarium, the Metallurgy Museum, the Teatr Rozrywki, the indoor karting track or the trampoline park.
Yes, you can enter the Silesian Park, the Rosarium, the Rose Park, Hutników Park, Żabie Doły and the Market Square without paying. Tickets apply in the zoo, the planetarium and Legendia.
There are two timber churches: St Lawrence's of 1599 on Góra Wyzwolenia and the Church of St Joseph the Worker of 1791 in the Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park.
