Gardens

Kościuszko Park in Katowice

Tadeusz Kościuszko Park is the largest park of Katowice: it covers 72 hectares between Kościuszki street, Piękna street and Górnośląska avenue, in the district of Brynów eastern part-Osiedle Zgrzebnioka. Its beginnings reach back to 1888, and the layout refers to English landscape parks; in 1993 it was entered in the register of immovable monuments.

The original tree stand was made mainly of birches and pines, later supplemented with hornbeams, beeches, small-leaved limes and maples, as well as foreign species: the southern catalpa, golden chain or the Chinese sawtooth cherry. After dark the park is lit by stylish lanterns, and on a daily basis it is the most eagerly visited recreational place in the city, with sports and recreation facilities woven into the alleys.

The parachute tower

The most history-laden object in the park is the parachute tower: built in 1937 and opened in June 1938, it was then the tallest tower of its kind in the country. Today it is the only surviving parachute tower in Poland. In September 1939 it became a legend-wrapped point of the defence of Katowice — according to the widespread account it was defended by boy scouts, although the scale of the resistance and the identity of the defenders still raise controversies among researchers.

St Michael's church and surroundings

On the highest hill of the park stands the wooden church of St Michael the Archangel from 1510, moved here from the Rybnik Land. There is also the monument of Tadeusz Kościuszko and the cemetery of Soviet soldiers fallen in 1945 while liberating Katowice. The park borders the built-up part of the city, so a walk is easy to combine with a visit to the centre — the densest part of Katowice is a dozen or so minutes away on foot.