Every design for Siemianowice Śląskie

Ever noticed how green Siemianowice Śląskie is for a town that grew up on coal and iron? Just a few kilometres from Katowice, it has the Park Miejski, Górnik and Pszczelnik parks, the Bażantaria woods and even golf courses, with Park Śląski right next door.

What makes the town unusual is how recently it became one. It only received town rights between the wars, stitched together from medieval settlements – Bańgów, Bytków, Michałkowice, Przełajka and Siemianowice itself – which still serve as its districts. Industry arrived long before that: the Laura ironworks, founded in the nineteenth century, was among the largest in Europe, and for a few years the town was even called Huta Laura-Siemianowice. When heavy industry collapsed at the end of the twentieth century, Siemianowice found new uses for its old sites. The former Michał mine is now the SCK Park Tradycji, the old granary holds the Muzeum Miejskie, and the town is also home to a burns treatment centre known across Poland. On the Brynica, in the core of the Metropolis GZM, daily life moves easily between its own districts and the cities all around.

Picture the Zespół pałacowy Mieroszewskich, Donnersmarcków, a palace and park whose story goes back to the seventeenth century, sitting quietly among the streets of a mining town.