Upper Silesia is a region where industry and architecture are very closely interwoven with each other. It is a land of large industrial buildings: mines, steelworks, rolling mills and fossil-fuel power stations. Here reigns the red brick, as the vast majority of them were built of it. Brick also constitutes the main building material of the famous Silesian familoks, workers’ tenement houses, captivating with their simplicity and rawness, so longed for by the Silesian middle class of today.

Silesia may amaze with the beauty of its architecture. Modernism is surprisingly common here, and Katowice successfully competes with Gdynia, which is more well-known in this respect. Nowadays, Art Nouveau tenement houses are the real pride of Silesian cities, which renovate them on a regular basis, thus restoring the former splendour of their streets. The buildings of Silesian town halls and palaces of Silesian aristocracy provide for examples of historicizing trends: Neo-Renaissance or Neo-Baroque.

The presentation comprises 48 slides from the collections of Muzeum Śląskie, dating back to the years 1905-1944, which, in our opinion, reflect the urban and industrial character of our region perfectly well.

Selection of slides: Danuta Kowalik-Dura

Introduction: Mariusz Gąsior

Silesian Urban and Industrial Landscape. A Nostalgic Journey Through Upper Silesia from the Early 20^th Century.

15.01.2020 – 10.05.2020 r.

Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice, T. Dobrowolskiego St. / level -4