Every design for Rybnik

In its oldest known record, from 1223, Rybnik is written Ribnich, and the name has hardly moved since. It comes from an old Slavic word for a fishpond, and a fishpond is exactly what once lay where the market square is today; a pike still swims across the city's coat of arms. Three early Slavic settlements merged here into one town, which lived for centuries from fishing, trade and craft.

Geography explains the rest. Rybnik lies in the south-west of the Silesian Voivodeship, southwest of Katowice and close to the Czech border, on the Ruda and Nacyna rivers, and it is the main city of what used to be called the Rybnik Coal Area. Rich coal fields found in the late 19th century drove its growth until the 1980s; since then it has turned to commerce, health care and business. It is a music city too: Henryk Górecki came out of the Szafrankowie School of Music, and the Rybnik Philharmonic Orchestra is based here. Locals know the Bazylika Mniejsza pw. Świętego Antoniego, the Zamek w Rybniku and the Park Kozie Góry by heart.

Coming home means water again: the Molo na stawie Paruszowiec, the ponds that named the town, and a place that has stayed recognisably itself for eight centuries.