University of Silesia Campus in Katowice

The University of Silesia Campus in Katowice is a complex of university buildings in the city centre, between the streets Bankowa, Szkolna, Uniwersytecka and Aleja Roździeńskiego. The university was established on 8 June 1968 by a regulation of the Council of Ministers, and the development combines Modernist buildings from the 1960s and 1970s with newer ones.

History of the site

Until 1913 there was a botanical garden here, and in the interwar period the Municipal Scientific Garden with a menagerie. In 1930 Torkat was opened, the first Polish artificial ice rink, and in 1950 the Municipal Zoological Garden was opened. The Rector's Office was created from a school building to a design by Wacław Lipiński, and the urban plan and the Physics Study Centre, today the Faculty of Humanities, were designed by Ryszard Sołtyński.

Buildings worth noting

The Institute of Mathematics has an E-shaped plan and a mosaic of an eagle. The Faculty of Social Sciences is decorated with a mosaic with the Vitruvian Man. The Faculty of Law and Administration from 2003 has a semicircular plan and four tower blocks. The Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library (2009-2011) houses stacks for 1.8 million volumes and has a sandstone facade. The Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School from 2017 preserved a former familok (workers' family house) of red brick. In the Institute of Chemistry from 1909 you will see historicism with elements of Expressionism.

In the neighbourhood

Next door stand the Silesian Theatre and the Silesian Museum, and half a kilometre further on the seat of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR).

Practical information

• Addresses: including ul. Bankowa 11 and 12, ul. Szkolna 9, ul. Uniwersytecka 4, Katowice.
• This is a working university; the interiors of the buildings may be accessible only during the university's working hours.
• A walk around the outdoor grounds is enough to see most of the buildings.