Gwarków Square in Tarnowskie Góry

Gwarków Square (Plac Gwarków) is a small, paved square in the very centre of the Old Town in Tarnowskie Góry, with a wooden miners’ bell tower and the Church of St Peter and St Paul. It is part of the town’s historic urban layout, entered in the heritage register in 1966.

The oldest market square of the town

The present Gwarków Square was most probably created shortly after the start of mining settlement (mining privilege of 1526; town rights granted on 25 July 1562), and served as the market square. In time the buildings here became so dense that important offices could not be located by it, so around 1531 a second market square was laid out about 200 m further on, by extending Gliwicka Street. The mining office, which also served as the town hall, stood by it.

The buildings around the oldest market square were at first entirely wooden. Only after the fire of the town in 1531 were the church and several houses rebuilt in stone and brick, and the church tower was also built then, which has survived to this day in almost unchanged form.

What the square looks like

The square is 45 m long and 35 m wide, that is 1,575 m². In the middle, on a slight rise, stands a lamp marking the site of the former municipal well, 36.5 m deep. Bondkowskiego, Rymera and ks. Lewka streets lead off from it, and the square itself is an extension of Gliwicka Street. It has no address numbers of its own; all the buildings by it belong administratively to Gliwicka Street.

Around it stand historic buildings: the Church of St Peter and St Paul, entered in the heritage register, and townhouses from the 18th and 19th centuries. At Gliwicka 25 is the building of the former mining school from 1857. The architectural qualities of the square are not fully displayed, because today it serves as a free car park.

The Miners’ Bell Tower

The most recognisable feature of the square is the Miners’ Bell Tower (Dzwonnica Gwarków), a wooden tower with a tent roof covered with shingles, standing on a limestone foundation. From the 19th century it originally stood by the washing-waste heap of the Royal Fryderyk Mine in Bobrowniki, and later by the “Blachówka” dolomite mine. In February 1955, on the initiative of the Society of Friends of the Tarnowskie Góry Land, it was moved to Gwarków Square, to the place of the former assembly house of the miners’ guild. It was ceremonially unveiled on 22 July 1955.

Because of the poor condition of the structure, a full replica was made in the second half of the 1980s. On the walls of the foundation hang two commemorative plaques devoted to the strikes and to martial law, and beside it grows one of a hundred “Oaks of Freedom”.

The surroundings

The square lies next to the Museum in Tarnowskie Góry, and less than a hundred metres further on stands the Old Synagogue. It is about two kilometres to the underground routes through the former silver mines: the Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry and the Royal Fryderyk Mine.

Practical information

• Location: the Old Town in Tarnowskie Góry, on the extension of Gliwicka Street. The square has no address of its own.
• The square is open to all and serves as a free car park, so for photographs of the bell tower it is better to choose a time with fewer cars.
• The bell tower and the plaques are viewed from the outside. The former bell from the tower, taken down in 2020, went to the Museum in Tarnowskie Góry.