Katowice: Gliwice Tour

Although Gliwice is located on the outskirts of the Upper Silesian Industrial District, it is not and has never been a classic industrial city. In an architectural sense, it has more in common with Wroclaw, than with any other nearby city. It is a historic town with a charming Old Town and at the same time a modern center with interesting and valuable monuments attractive for tourists. We encourage you to join our tour and walk down the streets of Gliwice where you will discover traces of a rich past, dating back to the 13th century. You will be surprised how different this pearl of architecture presents among the other industrial cities in the Upper Silesia region.

We offer private tours to Gliwice from Katowice on request

Tour itinerary:

1. pick up from your hotel at chosen time
2. approx. 30 min. drive from Katowice to Gliwice by a comfortable car/minivan and with assistance of our private guide in chosen language
3. arrival to the Radio Station in Gliwice – here you will spend up to 1 hour for private sightseeing tour with our guide:

• Radio Station Museum – On 31st August 1939 a group of Germans dressed in Polish uniforms attacked a German radio station in Gliwice and this provocation served the German Nazis as a pretext for starting World War 2. Recently, the complex, which consists of three buildings and a wooden transmitting mast were transformed into a museum where you can visit an exhibition including original broadcasting equipment from the 1930s and watch a short documentary film describing its history. In the distance, the slender mast resembles the Paris Eiffel Tower. It is considered to be the tallest wooden structure in the world with the height of 111 meters. There is not a single steel nail in the tower.

4. approx. 10 min. drive from the Radio Station Museum to the Gliwice Old Town area where you will have up to 3 hours of private walking tour during which you will see:

• Main Market Square with the Town Hall – the heart of the city with elegant, medieval architecture and charming restaurants, cafes; the most popular meeting place for the locals
• fragments of the defensive walls which come from the 15-16th century,
• Neptune’s Fountain – it may seem awkward why there is a statue of the god of seas in a city located 500 km from the Baltic Sea – in order to transport the materials mined and products manufactured here to cities in the further west, the Klodnica Canal was built, which connected the young industrial district with the Baltic Sea through the Odra River; the statue symbolizes the connection with the Baltic Sea
• Victory Street – the salon of the former bourgeoisie of Gliwice with Art Nouveau tenement houses, often decorated with turrets, delight with fanciful decorations
• Piast’s Castle – comes from the mid-fourteenth century.; it owes its present shape to the reconstruction in 1561; in front of the castle there is a statue of Stefan Batory and square decorated with the remains of the former moat;
• the former main post office – a building that cannot be missed while walking around the center at Dolnych Walow Street, which many visitors take for a church; the shape of this beautiful building may in fact suggest sacred functions, which it never had
• Church of All Saint’s – its massive tower, resembling medieval defensive structures, towers over the oldest part of Gliwice
• ruins of the Victoria Theater – one of the most original objects in the city; opened in the last decade of the 19th century, the complex until 1945 was a typical theater that could be seen in many medium-sized cities in central Europe; when Gliwice was captured by the Red Army, the building was set on fire and remained a forgotten ruin throughout the entire period of the Polish People’s Republic

5. approx. 30 min. drive back from Gliwice to Katowice
6. drop off at your hotel in Katowice

Whole tour lasts approximately 5 hours

Prices:

• 1050 PLN per person (1 person)
• 550 PLN per person (2 persons)
• 380 PLN per person (3 persons)
• 300 PLN per person (4 persons)
• 250 PLN per person (5 persons)
• 220 PLN per person (6 persons)
• 200 PLN per person (7 persons)
• Contact us (8 persons or more)

What is included?:

• service of our professional private city guide in chosen language for up to 5 hours tour
• private, comfortable, air-conditioned transportation during whole tour
• entrance tickets to the Radio Station Museum in Gliwice

This private tour is available in following languages:
English, German, Russian and French

*some languages may be subject to availability and prices can vary

*On request we can also take you to the Foundry Museum in the area of the former KWK Gliwice (beautifully arranged Zillman buildings), the city museum of Upper Silesian Jews’ Memorial House if you would be interested.