Katowice Trip – Rozbark Promenada

Rozbark (or Rossberg when it was German) grew quickly in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century when the mining industry suddenly expanded quickly, with the population of the town growing from 4,000 in 1880 to 24,000 by 1927. It was a wealthy border town, but it came to be part of Poland after the Second World War and soon after became part of Bytom. I couldn’t quite get to the bottom of what was happening with this street, it says in some places that the economy collapsed after the Second World war, leading to properties being abandoned, whereas other sources suggest many buildings were taken out of action due to subsidence from the mining. These are some grand properties, or at least they were, with a fair chunk of the buildings down the street needing substantial repair. However, some properties are in the process of being repaired and restored in what is now effectively a suburb of Bytom. The area felt like somewhere hit by economic decline, the demise of the coal mining industry was a huge challenge to Bytom and Rozbark.

It comes to something when the wall painting is in far better condition than the building that it’s on. There were a lot of similar images in the area relating to the local football club, Polonia Bytom.