Chapel of Our Lady in Katowice-Dąb

The Chapel of Our Lady in Katowice-Dąb is a tiny Neo-Gothic building of clinker brick, completed in 1893. It stands at the corner of Dębowa and Źródlana streets and is older than the Dąb parish and its church.

Who built it

The chapel was built on their own land by Antoni and Józefa Kracla, who worked transporting slag away from the “Ferdinand” mine. The builder was August Lauterbach of Katowice, and the year of completion is confirmed by an inscription on one of the buttresses on the Źródlana Street side. According to oral tradition, the chapel was a votive offering for the safe return from war of the founders' son. It originally stood by a field track; Źródlana Street was only laid out in the 1930s. In 1899 the Kracla family handed it over to the parish in Chorzów Stary, although the formalities were drawn out by a dispute over land ownership.

What the chapel looks like

The chapel stands on a hexagonal plan and covers 14 square metres. Eight prominent buttresses support the walls, and the door and four windows have pointed arches. Along the edge of the roof runs a massive, toothed cornice of many layers of brick, repeated in the parapet of the front wall. Inside are a figure of Our Lady of the Rosary and a painting of St John Paul II.

Role in the parish

For the residents of Dąb it is an important place of worship, and during the Corpus Christi celebrations it serves as one of the altars. In 2021 it was entered in the heritage register at the parish's request.

Practical information

• Location: corner of Dębowa and Źródlana streets, Dąb district of Katowice.
• The chapel is small and is usually viewed from the outside.
• It belongs to the parish of Sts John and Paul the Martyrs.