Gliwice

Gliwice is a city with an area of 134.2 square kilometres, inhabited by approximately 170,000 people. According to last year's data, Gliwice was ranked 19th on the list of the largest cities in Poland in terms of area and population. In the Silesian Province, the city is ranked 4th in terms of the number of inhabitants.

Gliwice is home to the Gliwice Subzone of the Katowice Special Economic Zone, where nearly PLN 10 billion have been invested so far. Gliwice is also a place where two motorways intersect: A4 and A1. The city is vibrant with cultural, technological and scientific life. The Silesian University of Technology is located here, which is ranked 4th among technical universities in Poland and 9th among all higher education institutions throughout the country

In Gliwice, there is also one of the best Polish medical centres, i.e. the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute – Oncology Centre, with Poland's first ever Cancer Radiosurgery Centre. The institute performed the world's first neck transplantation combined with a modified bone marrow transplant. The procedure took place in 2019, the patient was a 7-year-old boy who swallowed some drain cleaner. In 2013, doctors from the institute performed face-transplant procedure, and in 2015 they performed the world's first complex neck organ transplant.

A famous radio station, called the Gliwice Eiffel Tower, is located in the city. This is the tallest wooden structure in Europe, it is made of larch wood and is 111 metres high. In 2017, the Radio Station Tower, together with the adjacent complex, by decree of the President of the Republic of Poland was declared a Historic Monument. In the buildings belonging to the Radio Station complex, a so-called Gleiwitz incident took place. In 1939, a group of Germans who pretended to be Poles seized the Gleiwitz broadcasting building and aired a short anti-German message in Polish. Although only nine words were spoken, this fact was used by German propaganda to justify the aggression against Poland. The message in question was as follows: "Attention, Gleiwitz speaking. The radio station was seized by Poles."

In the city, there is also the Arena Gliwice, one of the most modern sports and entertainment halls in Poland, which can accommodate over 17,000 spectators.

The city is the start point of the Gliwice Canal, which after its opening in 1941 was the most modern waterway in Europe. The canal is approximately 40 kilometres long and it connects the Upper Silesia cities with the Oder River. Today it is one of the most interesting tourist attractions in the Metropolis. On weekends, you can set sail here on a 6-kilometre-long cruise that takes just over an hour. The canal is also used by coal barges sailing from Gliwice to the CHP plant in Wrocław. Each barge has a cargo weight of 330 tons.

There is another location in Gliwice where you can feel like on an exotic island, even in the middle of a long, severe winter. All thanks to the Gliwice Palm House. It houses approximately 6,000 plants. The visitors can admire here, among others, arapaima, the world's biggest freshwater fish, and the only Polish colony of ants that inhabit the Amazon region. The Palm House also features large aquariums with reconstructed ecosystems of the Amazon, Lake Tanganyika, as well as Asian and Polish rivers.

Włodzimierz Lubański, a many-year Polish football national team player and Olympic champion in 1972, was born in Gliwice. Stanisław Soyka, a renowned and highly appreciated Polish jazz vocalist, grew up in the city. Oskar Troplowitz, who invented the popular Nivea cream at the beginning of the 20th century, comes from Gliwice.

One of the most characteristic landmarks of Gliwice is the Radio Station Tower.