Czeladź

Czeladź is the oldest city in the Będzin county and the entire Dąbrowa Basin, which was given the urban charter in the 13th century. Contemporary linguists indicate that the name of the city comes from the word "czeladz", i.e. rural population on paid service. Today in Czeladź, the area of 16.57 square kilometres is inhabited by approximately 30,000 people. The city borders with Będzin, Sosnowiec, Katowice and Siemianowice Śląskie.

W 1858 roku odkryto tu pierwsze złoża węgla kamiennego. Przez lata w mieście działały dwie kopalnie węgla kamiennego: „Saturn” oraz “Czeladź”, które stały się znaczącymi zakładami przemysłowymi. Wokół nich powstawały kolonie robotnicze, z charakterystycznymi budynkami wielorodzinnymi dla robotników, tzw. familokami w dzielnicy Piaski. W przeciwieństwie do pozostałych osiedli robotniczych nie są one z czerwonej cegły, a z kamienia wapiennego.

In 1858, the first hard coal deposits were discovered here. For years, two coal mines used to operate in the city: "Saturn" and "Czeladź", which have become important industrial plants. The plants had their own coal worker's tenement houses (or housing estates), so-called "familoks", that were located in the Piaski district. Unlike other workers' housing estates, they are not made of red brick but of limestone.

Today, in a renovated fragment of the "Saturn" coal mine, the "Elektrownia" (Power Plant) Contemporary Art Gallery was established, whose interior resembles the times of steam engines and first electrical appliances. It is one of the most characteristic landmarks and monuments located on the map of the Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Province. The gallery is open to the public and houses exhibitions of paintings, graphics, sculptures, photographs, music events and small theatre forms.

Czesław Słania was born in Czeladź. He is a world-renowned engraver of postage stamps and banknotes, who was entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the most prolific of all stamp engravers in the world. All in all, he engraved more than one thousand of them. Philatelists discovered that Słania, while engraving a stamp, used to write on them microscopic names of his loved ones, i.e. the so-called secret notes/messages.

One of the most characteristic landmarks in Czeladź is the City Hall.