Silesian Planetarium in Chorzów

On the highest hill of the Silesian Park, Poland's largest and oldest planetarium has stood since 1955. The Silesian Planetarium has a dome 23 m across, onto which a new projector casts some 100 million stars, and after a PLN 136 million rebuild it has become a science park with interactive exhibitions, an observatory and a radio telescope. It makes a good rainy-day plan in the Katowice area — with children too.

History: a gift for the Copernicus Year

Construction began in July 1953, the Copernicus Year, on Góra Parkowa in what was then the Provincial Park of Culture and Recreation. The design was by Kraków architect Zbigniew Solawa, and the planetarium opened on 4 December 1955. For 63 years the heart of the hall was a Zeiss UPP projector from Jena — a machine weighing over 2 tonnes and standing 5 m tall when upright. A seismological station (1959) and a climatological station (1963) were added, and in 1957 the planetarium organised Poland's first Astronomy Olympiad. Since 2013 the building has been a listed monument.

A science park after the rebuild

In 2018–2022 the site was thoroughly modernised and reopened on 11 June 2022 as the Planetarium – Silesian Science Park. The hall received a Japanese GoTo Chiron III projector, which displays stars on a spherical screen of almost 800 m², supported by 10 SONY digital projectors in True 8K resolution. A new, largely underground building houses interactive exhibitions. On 28 December 2023 a PlaneWave CDK700 telescope with a 70 cm mirror was commissioned — replacing a 1955 refractor — along with a radio telescope with a 5 m dish, operating at the 21 cm wavelength.

What to see

• Popular-science shows in the Planetarium Hall (about 45 min), with 300 seats.
• The permanent exhibitions "Geophysics" (about 2 hrs) and "Astronomy" (about 1.5 hrs), also in versions for children.
• An observatory tour (about 25 min).
• A camera obscura in the tower and flight simulators.
• A sundial several metres across in the courtyard.

Did you know?

In 2011 the Planetarium hosted the 5th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics. The building has appeared on Polish postage stamps twice — in 1966 and 2007. Its astronomy library holds about 10,000 volumes.

Tripto tips

The Science Park is open Tuesday to Friday 8:30–19:00, and 9:30–19:00 at weekends and in the summer holidays; ticket offices close at 18:00. It is closed on Mondays, but shows in the Planetarium Hall run from 14:30. According to the price list, a show ticket costs PLN 20 (reduced PLN 15), "Geophysics" PLN 18, "Astronomy" PLN 12, and an observatory tour PLN 4. Tickets are tied to a specific show, so check the programme and book ahead. Allow 3 hours for a show and one exhibition. Address: al. Planetarium 4, Chorzów — on Góra Parkowa in the central part of the Silesian Park.