Piekary Śląskie () () is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. One of the core cities of the Metropolis GZM – metropolis with a population of 2 million. Located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Brynica river (tributary of the Vistula).

It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. Piekary Śląskie is one of the cities of the 2.7 million conurbation – Katowice urban area and within a greater Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area populated by about 5,294,000 people. The population of the city is 54,226 (2021). The name is of Polish origin. It derives from the word piekarz (meaning "baker"), referring to possible bakers baking bread here for the nearby city of Bytom or from the word pieczara (meaning "cavern"), as caverns were supposedly created here as a result of exploitation of ore.

In 1742 the settlement was annexed by Prussia and colonisation and Germanisation of Piekary Śląskie increased. The result was a strong movement towards maintaining the Polish origins of the land. In 1842, Piekary's rector, priest Jan Alojzy Ficek, commissioned a new neo-romanesque Basilica of St. Mary and St. Bartholomew designed by Daniel Grötschel. A painting of the Virgin Mary was placed there. In the mid-19th century, founded a Polish printing house.

Recent history

thumb|left|upright|Meeting of [[Stanisław Szeptycki and Wawrzyniec Hajda in Piekary in 1922]]

It was one of the centers of Silesian Uprisings and in 1922 was ceded to the Second Polish Republic by Weimar Germany as 86% of the population voted for joining the re-established Polish state. In June 1922, a symbolic ceremony of reintegration of Piekary with Poland took place. Polish Uhlans under the command of Stanisław Szeptycki entered Piekary, greeted by the St. Mary church by the local populace led by , local Polish independence activist and poet, nicknamed the "Silesian Wernyhora". On September 17, the Freikorps murdered two miners, one local official and one former Silesian Uprisings participant in Piekary. Several miners from the present-day district of Brzozowice were murdered in nearby Lasowice (present-day district of Tarnowskie Góry). Local teachers were among Polish teachers murdered in Nazi concentration camps. The Polenlager No. 188, a forced labour camp for Poles, was operated in the city. During the occupation, the city's main street, Bytomska, was renamed Adolf Hitler Street (Adolf-Hitler-Straße).

Notable people

thumb|upright|Wawrzyniec Hajda monument

  • Karol Langner (1843–1912), Polish priest
  • (1844–1923), Polish independence activist and poet
  • Hans Marchwitza, born at Szarlej (1890–1965), German writer and Communist
  • Hans Kroll (1898–1967), German diplomat
  • Wilhelm Antoni Góra (1916–1975), Polish footballer
  • Marek Siwiec (born 1955), Polish politician, Member of the European Parliament
  • Jerzy Polaczek (born 1961), Polish politician
  • Adam Matysek (born 1968), Polish footballer
  • Dariusz Wosz (born 1969), German footballer

Twin towns – sister cities

Piekary Śląskie is twinned with:

  • Kobuleti, Georgia
  • Kroměříž, Czech Republic
  • Marija Bistrica, Croatia

References

  • Piekary, Silesia
  • Jewish Community in Piekary Śląskie on Virtual Shtetl