Poland's most improved city? The progress that Katowice has made in the 25 years that I've been in Poland is impressive. From a dirty, smoky coal town to a modern urban agglomeration based on shared services/ outsourcing and advanced manufacturing, the contrast in such a short space of time is hard to believe.
The local economy is doing remarkably well; photo taken from Wełnowiec DL Tower, which Google Maps Street View shows as an empty plot back in 2017 and old industrial premises in 2014. The new building is nearly finished and 93% of the space has already been rented. From the ninth floor, I can count eight cranes on the skyline. The highest building on the skyline is the KTW building.
Left: the KTW building, at 134m is the tallest office tower in the Silesian agglomeration; the first tenants moved in four months ago.
In front of it stands the monument to the three Silesian Uprisings of 1919-1921 which saw Katowice returned to Poland. I remember the unveiling of the monument in 1967 - it was on the covers of the Polish media that our families in Poland would send us in London. To me the sculptures, by Gustaw Zemła, looked like three shrouded grand pianos standing on their ends. Apparently, they are meant to be wings.
Below: monument commemorating the Polish boy scouts and girl guides who took part in the defence of the city in September 1939, a dozen or so of whom were executed after the city fell to the Germans. I am minded that what Poland had experienced with its aggressive neighbour to the west, Ukraine is dealing with right now - Poland has had peace with Germany for 77 years, but only after Germany was thoroughly de-Nazified and demilitarised. Russia must undergo a similar process.
I woke up this morning to this view - Katowice station, across the road from the Mercure hotel where I was staying. Note the string of locomotives - at least four coupled together - an unusual sight.
Below: ulica 3 Maja, a major east-west thoroughfare through the centre of Katowice. To the left, Galeria Katowice, a copy-paste Polish shopping mall, tenants including all the shops you'll find in the major malls of Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław or Gdańsk. Some signs of the Russian invasion of Ukraine; an information centre for refugees, a contact point in the station building, mothers speaking Ukrainian to their children, people shaking collecting tins in the street.
Mid-morning, Friday, not too busy. Good to see cars excluded from much of the city centre. Amid the urban clutter and signage - but some interesting architecture at the end of this pedestrianised street... Let's stroll down and take a look.
Below: classic Katowice architecture - the Adam Mickiewicz senior high school ('general-shaping lyceum'), built in 1900 in neo-Gothic/Renaissance Revival style. Red brick, cleansed of its former sootiness, very characteristic of the region.
Under a bright blue sky, the contrast of old brick tenements and modern office and retail space, the city of Katowice looks an attractive place to live and work - and from the top of the office buildings, you can clearly see the mountains.
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