Warszawska Street, Katowice


Warszawska Street in Katowice is a street in the centre of Katowice. The street was built in the 19th century. Until 1922 and during World War II the street was called Friedrichstraße, 1926–1939 Marszałka Piłsudskiego.

History

Originally, the street leading to the Market Square was called Chausseestraße/Chaussee von Myslovitz; in 1857 the name was changed to Friedrichstraße. It served as the main east–west axis. In the mid-19th century, the Municipal Office was located there.
On a spatial map of the village of Katowice from 1823, the road already appears as an important route leading to Mysłowice.
In 1848, at the beginning of today’s Warszawska Street, on the site of the present “Zenit” Department Store, the first hotel in Katowice was opened. It was popularly known as the Hotel Welt, after one of its owners, Karl Welt. In 1850, the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant hall hosted a concert by Johann Strauss and his orchestra.
In 1856, in a small house on Friedrichstraße, pharmacist Tripitz founded Katowice’s first pharmacy. On August 1, 1876, another pharmacy, Adlerapotheke, opened on the same street in the Spisz House.
According to Royal Prussian land measurements from 1881, the intersection of Friedrichstraße and Sedanstraße lies 264.2 meters above sea level.
The straightened roads and routes from the early industrial period were preserved and incorporated into the city street network, while two main communication axes — the latitudinal one and the longitudinal one — became the main framework of the downtown urban grid.
A distinctive feature of the city’s landscape during its earliest development was the villa district, stretching along the eastern section of the main urban axis — the Mysłowice Road. At the beginning of the 20th century, Warszawska Street was the main eastern entrance road into Katowice. On June 20, 1922, General Stanisław Szeptycki and his troops entered the city along this street. In 1926, the street was renamed in honor of Marshal Józef Piłsudski.
On the wall of the building at No. 6, there is a memorial plaque, funded in 1962 by the people of Katowice, in honor of Andrzej Mielęcki, who was murdered by German militias on August 17, 1920.
In 1927, the Hil and Berek Sztrochlic brothers from Będzin founded a printing workshop called Drukarnia Handlowa at 33 Piłsudski Street. In the autumn of 1927, parts of the street were paved with wooden cobblestones.
In the 1930s, the Third Police Precinct was located at No. 49, and at No. 21 there was the “Czora” Hotel with three rooms. During World War II, Friedrichstraße housed the headquarters of the Schlesische AG für Bergbau und Zinkhüttenbetrieb.
In the 1960s and 1970s, part of the buildings between 3 Maja, Warszawska, and Juliusz Słowacki Streets were demolished due to the construction of the new railway station. In 1981, the Silesian Theatre opened its Chamber Stage here.
In 2009, the tram tracks were modernized at a cost of about 30 million złoty; the tracks were embedded in prefabricated concrete slabs, and several tram stops with one-lane-wide platforms were added, thereby reducing car lanes. All stops received new shelters and were protected by barriers shielding pedestrians from splashes caused by passing cars.
In 1999, the tenement house at 9 Warszawska Street collapsed.

Buildings

  • Kościół Zmartwychwstania Pańskiego
  • Old tenement houses