A former coal mine in Bogucice, active from 1823 to 1999, whose historic buildings now form the Culture Zone with the Silesian Museum.
The “Katowice” mine extracted coal in Bogucice from 1823 to 1999. Today its brick buildings, shafts and winding towers are part of the Culture Zone, and a museum and a restaurant operate in the former halls.
The works was established on the initiative of Captain Ignatz Ferdinand von Beym and was originally called “Ferdinand”. It obtained its mining grant in 1823, and the mine received the name “Katowice” in 1936, after it was incorporated into the Mining and Steelmaking Interest Community. In 1996 it was merged with the “Kleofas” mine, and extraction ended in 1999. Decommissioning work lasted until mid-2001.
Industrial architecture from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries has survived, in the style of brick historicism with neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque details. The tallest landmark is the winding tower of the “Warszawa II” shaft from 1905, converted into a viewing tower. The complex of the “Bartosz” shaft, with its pithead, winding tower and engine house containing a steam winding engine from 1892, is entered in the heritage register. A water tower from 1915 and four familoks (workers' family houses) of the former management on ulica Nadgórników have also survived.
The grounds of the former mine were transformed into the Culture Zone. The seat of the Silesian Museum opened here in 2015. The new building was constructed mainly below ground level, while workshops, an exhibition and a restaurant were set up in the former mine buildings: the engine house of the “Warszawa I” shaft is a restaurant, and a permanent exhibition operates in the former joinery.
On the site of the former mine management building stands the seat of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), completed in 2014, and the International Congress Centre operates next to it.
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