Main Post Office in Bytom

The Main Post Office at Piekarska 6 in Bytom is a Neo-Renaissance building from 1908, with a façade of clinker brick and sandstone. Today it no longer houses a post office, but it has kept the rich decoration of its façade linked to the history of the post.

The building of 1908

The building was designed by Ewald von Rechenberg. The authorship of Otto Pein, which is sometimes given, is wrong, because Pein could only have supervised the construction. Five houses were demolished on the site, and the building was blessed on 15 May 1909. Work began the following day, a Sunday, and the new building replaced the post office at the corner of Dworcowa Street and the Boulevard. A ditch separates the building from the Church of the Holy Trinity, and the proximity of the church, which bothered the parish, affected the size of the building.

Neo-Renaissance with bas-reliefs about the post

The style of the building is northern Neo-Renaissance, echoing the French Renaissance. The bas-reliefs show the history of the post: the mounted post, mail coaches and four-horse stagecoaches on sleds and wheels. The façade is also decorated with sculptures of animals, fantastic creatures and human heads, and above the main entrance is an emblem with a crowned eagle. At the back of the plot stands a postal depot. The entry in the heritage register covers the building together with the depot.

Changes after 1909

In 1920 the building served as a guardhouse of the French troops. In the 1950s a rebuilding largely destroyed the original decor, but elements of the staircase and massive doors have survived, and some of the interiors have original stucco and joinery. The post office was later moved to a shopping centre and the building was sold, after which the new owner carried out a renovation including cleaning of the façade. The building is not in use today, so it is viewed from the outside.

Nearby

Close by lie the Silesian Opera building in Bytom, the Franciszek Kachel Municipal Park and, a little further, the Szombierki Heat and Power Plant.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Piekarska 6, Bytom.
• The building is private and not in use; it is viewed from the street. Check its condition before your visit.