Places with character
a Baroque Neptune on a dolphin from 1794, called by the people of Gliwice “George with the pitchfork”
Places with character
remains of the former steelworks from 1867: a water tower and a management building from 1908
Places with character
medieval square of the Old Town with a town hall and a fountain with Neptune
Places with character
a cast-iron fountain from 1928 with three dancing fauns, known as the Little Devils
Places with character
a square by the Silesian University of Technology with open-air concerts and the city's first skatepark
Atmospheric places in Gliwice: the market square with its Neptune fountain, the Devils before the town hall, Plac Krakowski and old steelworks.
The five addresses form a walk from the Old Town to the post-industrial part of the city. Most are squares and fountains that you see simply by walking down the street, so you need no ticket or day plan. The only exception is the former steelworks, which is best looked at from a distance.
Start with the market square, a square about seventy-five metres on each side with the town hall in the middle. In its western part stands the Neptune fountain.
The layout of the square and the Old Town streets took shape in the Middle Ages, when the town was chartered, and two lanes leave each corner of the square. Most of the surrounding houses are nineteenth- and twentieth-century buildings that were badly damaged in the Second World War, so after 1946 the square was rebuilt. The fountain of 1794 is a sandstone Neptune with a trident, sitting on a dolphin, on a plinth inside a square basin. It is listed among the movable monuments of the Silesian Voivodeship. In the latter part of the 1800s locals gave it the nickname Jerzy with a pitchfork.
The Devils, officially the fountain with three fauns, stand in front of the City Hall on Zwycięstwa Street, in the former Haus Oberschlesien hotel.
The cast-iron fountain was made in 1928 at the Gliwice steelworks. It shows three dancing fauns holding hands, and the plinth carries a motif of rams' heads and festoons. The figures were restored in 2010. Residents tell two stories about the devils, and one links the dancers with the city's lord mayors. The casting came from the local steelworks, which the next section covers.
Two structures remain of the old steelworks: a water tower and the management building. Near the Silesian University of Technology lies Plac Krakowski, a venue for outdoor events.
The plant was founded in 1867 by Salomon Huldschinsky and Albert Hahn and worked until 2000. After closure the rest of the site stood empty for a long time. Plac Krakowski lies between Wrocławska, Akademicka and Łużycka streets, and its fourth side is closed by the Faculty of Mining and Geology. It hosts the January finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity and the June Midsummer Night, and the first skatepark in the city stands here as well. Other addresses are on the pages Gliwice, historic sites in Gliwice and atmospheric places in Silesia.
Five: the market square, two fountains, Plac Krakowski and the former steelworks site.
This is what residents call the fountain with three fauns. Two stories are told about it, and one links the figures with the lord mayors.
The water tower and the historic management building.
In the Politechnika district, between Wrocławska, Akademicka and Łużycka streets.
