About the Museum

In 2005, the Katowice City Hall bought the building of the former laundry and mangle in the historic miner’s settlement of Nikiszowiec from ”Wieczorek” coal mine and handed it over to the Museum of Katowice History, to establish another branch of the museum there. In the part of the building where the laundry used to be mangled, exhibitions of painting, photography and sculpture were organised for a few years, as well as art workshops for children, meetings with travellers, and similar events. In 2009, the renovation of the building proceeded, aiming at adapting it for museum purposes as part of the EU funded project „The Heart of Nikiszowiec. Revitalisation of the Building of the Museum of Katowice History”. Once the renovating and equipping works were completed, the collections of the Ethnology Department of the Museum were transferred there, from the main building at 9 Szafranka Street.

Nikiszowiec settlement belongs to the Industrial Monuments Route of Silesia. It is a thematic cultural tourism car route presenting the most interesting and significant industrial objects in Silesian Voivodeship (region) in the scope of tourism, history and architecture.

In 2018, Nikiszowiec settlement also became part of European Route of Industrial Heritage. The Museum of Katowice History and Stowarzyszenie Fabryka Inicjatyw Lokalnych (Local Initiatives Factory Association) are the administrators of the site. See the certificate confirming the participation in ERIH.

ERIH, the European Route of Industrial Heritage, is a network joining over 850 European Industrial Heritage Objects, such as postindustrial landscapes, closed industrial complexes or single plants.