Gas Industry Museum in Paczków

On 15 July 1977 the last cart of coke at the Paczków gasworks was quenched – not with water, but with a symbolic glass of champagne. That cart, coke and all, now stands in the museum. Paczków has the only site in Poland where the complete equipment for producing town gas has survived, and the old gasholder houses around 600 gas meters – probably the largest such collection in Europe.

History: gas for a small town

The gasworks on Pocztowa street was built in 1898–1901. On a frosty 31 December 1901 Mayor Bergmann ceremonially started production. Construction cost 90,000 German marks. The gas lit the streets and market square, powered the waterworks pumps and was used for cooking; at first only one five-retort furnace was in operation. By the 1930s about 700 households – almost 85% of the town – were connected.

Paczków suffered little in the war, and by mid-1945 the gasworks was running again. Production was modernised around 1960, and the number of customers grew from 735 in 1955 to 1,450 in 1968. But the expansion of the coke-oven gas network spelled the end of small gasworks: the plant was shut down in 1977, and work on a museum began almost immediately. It opened on 23 November 1991 and was thoroughly modernised in 2005–2007.

What to see

The exhibition covers about 1,000 m² and more than 3,000 objects. The buildings and equipment look almost as they did a century ago, when the gasworks started up.

• The coal-gas production line – horizontal retort furnaces (one has been cut open so you can look inside), coolers, a tar separator, ammonia and naphthalene scrubbers, desulphurisation boxes and a rotary gas meter.
• The gas meter collection in a historic gasholder of 1902 – from household bellows meters to huge industrial ones. The oldest, made by Kromschröder and Elster, date from the late 19th century. There are also coin-operated meters, withdrawn in Poland after the war.
• Gas-powered household appliances: gas fridges, irons, curling tongs, a soldering iron, cookers with one to five burners, gas stools and ovens. Many still work.
• Machinery: a fireless steam locomotive of 1927 from the Wrocław gasworks, a 1927 gas engine from Cieplice that drove the plant's equipment via belts, and a coffee roaster from Głogówek.
• Lamps and advertising – from cast-iron street lamps to crystal wall lights, plus posters with slogans such as “Gas – the only civilised fuel”.

Did you know?

The museum grounds are lit by working gas lamps. In Poland gas street lighting survives in only a few cities, including Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław, so their warm yellowish glow is a rarity. The document collection covers the period from Poland's first gasworks to the end of town-gas production in 1998.

Tripto tip

The museum (ul. Pocztowa 6, tel. +48 77 431 68 34) is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00–17:00; closed Sundays and Mondays. Prices in October 2026: standard ticket PLN 12, reduced PLN 10, school PLN 8; children under 6 free. Allow 1–1.5 hours. The museum also has a conference room and four guest rooms with 10 beds. The best time for photos is dusk, when the gas lamps in the courtyard light up.