Museum of Mining in Katowice

Upper Silesia is known as a huge industrial region and especially as a coalfield. The exploitation of this valuable power engineering raw material for over 200 years caused a sudden development and urbanization of this territory. Zabrze is one of the cities which owes its own civilization promotion to the coal mining. The first mine was built in 1791 and after the II World War the city was determined as the “capital of the Polish mining”. It was not an accident that the first Coal Mining Museum was built in Zabrze in 1981 – firstly it was only one national museum in this branch in Poland and since 1999 as a council institution of the Silesian Voivodeship. 

The collection’s foundation was the survived part of the legacy after the Federal Mining Museum in Sosnowiec which existed between 1948 – 1972. As a result of the own archival penetration, territorial searching, merchandizes and gifts, they were enriched and there have presently about 32 thousand of exhibits. The fundamental part of the collection constitutes the technical exhibits representing particular mining sections: mining, dewatering, ventilation, lightning, surveying, connection. They illustrate the technical concept development from the simple tools and mechanisms to the complicated devices with the steam and electrical engines. The rich archives (with a unique collection from the 18th and 19th century’s technical drawings) and geological collections (with the fascinating record of the carboniferous world preserved in fossils and imprints) do not exhaust the mining theme. Its inseparable part is the culture and tradition sphere. It is illustrated by the uniform and mining insignia’s collections, the exhibits connected with the mining patron worship – Saint Barbara and ethnographic collections associated with the everyday life of Silesian miners. The Silesian and mining topics are brought closer by: paintings, graphics and sculpture (among others: amazingly interesting coal sculpture), and also the medals collection, mugs and musical instruments. The seat of the Museum is a large building of the previous starost’s office, built in the eclectic style in 1874. Its definite extension of 1906 is a work of Berlin architect Arnold Hartman. The building possesses one of the most interesting, monumental interiors in the city, among others: a huge two – storey hall crossed wooden stair case and the Stained Glass Room – in the past the room of the District Diet Meetings – with wooden, polychrome vault.

Address: 19 3-go Maja Street, Zabrze

Opening hours:
Mondays – closed

Tuesdays – Wednesdays – 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Thursdays – 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Fridays – 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Saturdays – 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Sundays – 12:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.