About the Museum

In 1976, on the initiative of the museum section of Katowickie Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalnego (Katowice Socio-cultural Society), a museum chamber was established in Katowice. Initially, the chamber had no articles of association and no budget. It did not employ staff and was unable to perform the most essential functions of a museum, that is, the collection and preparation of indexes of collected objects. In 1976, the Katowice City Hall assigned to the museum the building located at 9 ks. J. Szafranka Street. In January 1981, the museum became a division of the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom. On 1 January 1983, it became an independent entity under the name of the Museum of Katowice History and proceeded to acquire exhibits, organise exhibitions, conduct research and issue its own publications.

Near the entrance to the Museum building, there is a life-size figure representing Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, designed by a young artist, Tomasz Wenklar, a graduate of the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, unveiled on 19 May 2007. In this way, the Museum expresses its pride in the possession of one of the most beautiful collections of Witkacy’s works in Poland – 26 depictions of one model, whom the artist called Asymmetrical Lady due to her irregular facial features.The collection, bequeathed to the future museum by its owner – the model herself, Eugenia Wyszomirska-Kuźnicka – directly contributed to the establishment of the Museum of Katowice History in 1981.