Katowice - Nikiszowiec

Katowice - Nikiszowiec

Anyone who wants to see the "black Silesia" immortalised by Kazimierz Kutz in his films should come to Katowice and seek out the Nikiszowiec estate in this thriving city. Its characteristic brick familoki – traditional Silesian workers' houses – have survived there in perfect condition and, together with the church and other public buildings, form a unique microworld. You can get to know it well with the audio guide, which is made available to tourists in a former… mangle room.The Nikiszowiec estate – or Nikisz, as the locals call it – was built in the second decade of the 20th century. It was commissioned by the "Giesche" mine, which in this way provided for its employees – the miners and their families. The estate's designers, Georg and Emil Zillmann, focused mainly on its functionality, but they also took the aesthetics of the whole complex into account.The result was residential buildings, an administrative building, a church, a bathhouse, a laundry, a police station, a school and even an inn. The audio guide shows us all of this through the eyes of ordinary residents and also recalls the memories of Prof. Julian Gembalski, Prof. Dorota Symonides and Kazimierz Kutz.