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Jubilee Mural in Tarnowskie Góry

On the walls of buildings by the transfer centre, right next to the railway station in Tarnowskie Góry, stretches the Jubilee Mural — a painting 119 metres long, the largest mural in Upper Silesia. Unveiled in spring 2025, it celebrates 500 years of the miners' town's history.

The competition and the artist

The design was chosen in a jubilee mural competition, voted on by both a jury and the residents. Karolina Fabia won with a symbolic, colourful work of considerable artistic ambition. As the artist herself admits, the message may seem elusive at first — only a closer look reveals the many symbols and references to the town's past.

Four segments of history

The painting is divided into four parts. The first tells of a peasant called Rybka, who in 1490 found the first lump of silver ore in Tarnowice — the origin of the "mountains", that is the mines, and of the town's very name. The second recalls the grant of town rights, the coat of arms and the Ordunek Górny mining charter issued by Jan II Dobry and Margrave Jerzy Fryderyk von Ansbach. The third shows the town in the 18th and 19th centuries: the Fryderyk mine and smelter and the first steam engines on the continent outside the British Isles; the Gwarki Gate appears as well. The fourth opens with the Gwarki Belfry and mine tunnels, runs on to one of the largest rail junctions in Europe, and ends with a tribute to the town's post-mining monuments inscribed on the UNESCO list.

Practicalities

The mural runs along 1C Częstochowska Street; at its highest point it is 9.6 m tall, at the lowest 4 m. There is a large free car park next to the painting, and the market square is a short walk away.