Museums
a multimedia exhibition on the Silesian Uprisings in the former Donnersmarck estate administration building from 1907
Churches and monasteries
Neo-Romanesque brick church in Chropaczów, rebuilt from the inside after the fire of 1975
Churches and monasteries
the oldest church in the town, a neo-Gothic brick church from 1872 with rich vaulting
Churches and monasteries
a brick church from 1891, a votive offering for the rescue of 43 miners trapped in a mine
Churches and monasteries
brick church resembling a multi-sided tent, with a chapel of St Joseph on the lower level
Churches and monasteries
church from 1931 on a Latin cross plan, replacing a church demolished after mining damage
Churches and monasteries
brick Lutheran church from 1901 with a tower and Art Nouveau stained glass
Industrial heritage
a 40-metre Neo-Baroque tower from 1909 with a steel tank holding 500 m³
Historic sites
Neo-Renaissance seat of the Donnersmarck works directorate from 1897
Historic sites
heavy bunker of the “Silesia” Fortified Area from 1937 with a museum room and 13 chambers
Historic sites
Neo-Renaissance clerks' house of a zinc company from 1859 in Piaśniki
Historic sites
brick shrine with a cross of 1899 in Chropaczów, renovated in 2015
Industrial heritage
a metal winding tower from 1908 at the former Polska mine
Industrial heritage
historic winding towers of shafts I and II of a coal mine from 1873
Solo in Świętochłowice: a water tower, the former Polska mine, an uprisings museum and churches make a plan for exploring the town alone.
Świętochłowice is an industrial town where the monuments line up along one main street and a few districts. For a lone visitor that is an advantage: sites are close, and you can shorten or stretch the route without a plan. More suggestions for solo visitors wait in the section on things to do alone in Silesia, while a general picture of the town is on the page for Świętochłowice.
Start on Katowicka street. Its landmark is the water tower of 1909, neo-Baroque and 40 metres high, with a unique steel tank of the Klönne type on top. On the same street stands the brick Church of St Peter and St Paul of 1891, built in gratitude for the rescue of miners buried in a pit collapse in 1884. At number 30 you will find the former directorate of the Donnersmarck mines and steelworks, a brick building of 1897 in northern neo-Renaissance style. It is now a residential block, so you view it from the street.
For a lesson in local history choose the Museum of the Silesian Uprisings at Wiktora Polaka 1. The neo-Gothic building of 1907 was built as the seat of the Donnersmarck estate administration, and the exhibition covers the three Silesian uprisings and the plebiscite. It is a good stop for a rainy hour.
Two shaft towers survive from the Polska mine, founded on 24 October 1873 by Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck. The steel tower of Shaft I dates from 1908 and was registered as a monument in 2004. The whole is described on the page of the former Polska mine complex at Wojska Polskiego 16, where the towers of Shafts I and II stand together.
In a park in Piaśniki stands Combat Bunker No. 39, a Polish heavy bunker of 1937 from the second defence line of the Silesian Fortified Area. It houses a small museum room and is a registered monument. In the same district, at Bytomska 55, is the palace, also called the Piaśniki castle: a neo-Renaissance office building of the zinc company from 1859, rebuilt in 1917.
The oldest is the neo-Gothic Church of St Augustine in Lipiny, from 1871-1872, with a stone portal. In Chropaczów, at Armii Krajowej 11, stands the neo-Romanesque Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of 1911-1913, damaged by fire in 1975 and rebuilt. In the same district, on Kościelna street, look for the wayside shrine Cross of the Lord's Passion with a three-metre cross dating from 1899.
In Piaśniki, at Chorzowska 4, you will see the Church of the Sacred Heart, brick, shaped like a many-sided tent and built in 1982-1990. The Protestant Church of St John the Baptist is a neo-Gothic brick church of 1900-1901 on plac ks. Leopolda Raabego. In the Zgoda district stands the Church of St Joseph of 1931, successor to an older church destroyed by mining damage. For Zgoda in 1945, read the article on the Central Labour Camp in Świętochłowice-Zgoda.
Begin with the water tower, a church and the uprisings museum in the centre, then walk on to the shaft towers of the old Polska mine.
It is 40 metres tall. It was built in 1909 in the neo-Baroque style.
The Church of St Augustine in Lipiny, neo-Gothic, from 1871-1872.
Bunker No. 39 of 1937 houses a museum room of the Silesian Fortified Area. It stands in a park in Piaśniki.
