Before renovation
The building of the Silesian Museum in its current form was constructed on the site of the former „Katowice” coal mine. The beginning of coal mining dates back to 1823, but the mine did not receive its name – „Katowice” – until 1936. – the mine was not given its name until 1936, having previously operated under the name „Ferdinand” (after its initiator, Ignatius Ferdinand von Beym).
As one of the largest facilities in the region, the mine attracted media and public interest. Reading issue 35 of the „Dziennik Śląski” of 1900, we can find the following passage devoted to it: „incorporated into the Bogucice-Zawodzie municipality; this gave the municipality the possibility to collect taxes, while the mine officials had an influence on the municipality’s decisions”.
The plant was also one of the important architectural landmarks of Katowice at the time, as Piotr Rygus writes: „the image of the Ferdinand mine towering over downtown Katowice often adorned postcards from Bogucice and Katowice”. During the Second World War the mine was incorporated into the German Reichswerke Hermann Göring concern. Despite the war effort, mining was not stopped. There was a clandestine Committee for the Protection of the Mine, headed by Zygmunt Żurawski, who saved the facility from being blown up by the retreating Germans. The plant operated until 1999. It is estimated that during the more than 170 years of the mine’s operation some 120 million tonnes of coal were extracted.
After revitalisation
On the site formerly occupied by the coal mine, the 'Culture Zone’ – a cultural and entertainment area of the city of Katowice – was created. The site has been developed with the building of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the International Congress Centre and the Silesian Museum. The placement of the Silesian Museum on the post-mining site is not the beginning of its history, after all, the institution was already established in 1929 by a resolution of the Silesian Parliament. Unfortunately, the seven-storey modernist building, designed by Karol Schayer, was demolished by the German occupiers in 1945.
The Silesian Museum was restored in 1984, while the contemporary architectural form of the building was completed in 2013. 2019 marked the round 90th anniversary of the institution, and the building was awarded the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for its contribution to the culture of the Republic of Poland.
The collections of the Silesian Museum include works by, among others: Jacek Malczewski, Józef Chełmoński, Jan Matejko, Józef Mehoffer or Stanisław Wyspianski. In addition, the institution holds both permanent and temporary exhibitions. Permanent exhibitions include the 'Gallery of Polish Modern Art 1800 – 1945′ and the 'Gallery of Silesian Sacred Art’. The institution cooperates with many foreign institutions, such as the Slovak National Gallery or the Upper Silesian Museum in Ratingen.
