A few kilometres from the centre of Katowice, there is a spectacular district that has become a symbol of workers' housing for the use of the coal mines existing in this area.
It is really worth spending some time here wandering the streets of this quasi-town and visiting the local museum to see how Silesian miners lived in the 20th century.
Nikiszowiec from a bird's eye view:
“Nikiszowiec (German: Nickischschacht) - part of Katowice, as well as a historic patronage housing estate built in the years 1908-1919 on the initiative of the mining and metallurgical concern Georg von Giesches Erben as a workers' housing estate for miners of the "Giesche" mine (since 1946 "Wieczorek").
The housing estate was designed by architects Emil and Georg Zillmann from Charlottenburg, who were also the authors of the design of the neighbouring Giszowiec.
The Nikiszowiec workers' housing estate is a unique and fully preserved example of patronage housing. It consists of a complex of nine brick blocks of residential buildings with diverse architectural details, dominated by the neo-Baroque church of St. Anne. The urban and spatial layout of the workers' estate was entered into the register of immovable monuments in 1978, and in 2011 it became one of the historical monuments.”
