Place:Dąbrowa Górnicza, Ślaskie, Poland

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Dąbrowa Górnicza is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. It is located in eastern part of the Silesian Voivodeship, on the Czarna Przemsza and Biała Przemsza rivers (tributaries of the Vistula, see Przemsza).

Even though Dąbrowa Górnicza belongs to the historic province of Lesser Poland, it now is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999), and previously (1975–1998) it was in Katowice Voivodeship. Dąbrowa Górnicza is one of the cities of the Katowice urban area (2.7 million people), and within the greater Silesian metropolitan area (5.2 million people). The population of the city itself as of December 2021 is 116,971.^[1]

History

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In the first half of the 18th century, Dąbrowa was a small agricultural settlement belonging to the Będzin parish of Lesser Poland's Kraków Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown. It was first mentioned on 25 July 1726, when the parish priest of Holy Trinity Church at Będzin noted a woman named Anna Lisowa from Dąbrowa. At the 1787 census of the Archdiocese of Kraków, the settlement numbered 184 inhabitants. The districts of Dąbrowa, which for centuries had been separate villages, are much older. Trzebieslawice was first mentioned in the 12th century; Błędow was mentioned by Bishop of Kraków Iwo Odrowąż in the year 1220; Strzemieszyce and Ujejsce were mentioned in the 14th century; Gołonóg

in the 15th century; while Ząbkowice was described by Jan Długosz.

After the Third Partition of Poland (1795) Dąbrowa was annexed by Prussia and incorporated into its newly formed province of New Silesia. The Prussians discovered rich deposits of coal here and the first coal mine was established by Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden in 1796. In 1799, first detailed map of this area was created, on which a settlement called Stara Dąbrowa is presented. It was located along a road from Kraków to Upper Silesia. The coal mine, established by Friedrich Reden, attracted workers, and a settlement was soon established around it. In 1807, Dąbrowa was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815, after the duchy's dissolution, it became part of Russian-controlled Congress Poland. In 1846, the Cieszkowski Coal Mine was opened, named after Józef Cieszkowski. The Zinc Plant Konstanty operated as early as 1823, and the Huta Bankowa steel works, which is still in operation, was built in Dąbrowa Górnicza in 1834. First primary school was opened in 1820, and first Roman Catholic church of St. Alexander was built in the 1870s. During the January Uprising, in February 1863, Dąbrowa was captured by Polish insurgents after their victory in the Battle of Sosnowiec nearby. In 1909 the gmina of Dąbrowa Górnicza was established by Tsarist authorities. Even though its population reached 30,000, the Russians were reluctant to grant Dąbrowa town charter, so it remained a village until 18 August 1916, when Austrian authorities, which during World War I occupied southern part of Congress Poland, agreed to establish the town. After the war, in 1918, Poland regained independence and control of the city. 15 local Polish boy scouts were killed in fights for Polish independence in 1914–1920.^[2] In the Second Polish Republic, Dąbrowa belonged to Kielce Voivodeship.

In September 1939, in the beginning of World War II, the city was invaded by Germany, and shortly afterwards the German Einsatzgruppe I operated in the city and committed various crimes against the Polish population. Also in September 1939, Wehrmacht troops carried out a massacre of 14 Polish boy scouts from nearby villages in the present-day district of Tucznawa. Poles from Dąbrowa Górnicza were among the victims of massacres committed by the Germans in other places, including Sosnowiec on September 4, 1939 and Celiny on June 4, 1940. Under German occupation the city was annexed directly to Germany, and included within the Upper Silesia Province. At least 14 Polish policemen from Dąbrowa were murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940. Further executions of Poles were carried out by the Germans during the war. Over 40 local Polish boy and girl scouts were killed by the Germans in various places, including the Auschwitz concentration camp and during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944,^[2] and over 60 local miners were also murdered in Auschwitz. In October 1941, the occupiers expelled over 100 Poles, who were then sent to forced labour either to Germany or to various factories in the region, while their houses were handed over to German colonists as part of the Lebensraum policy. The Germans also operated the E513 and E543 forced labour subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp at the local coal mine. German occupation ended in 1945.

Together with whole Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, the city was transferred to Katowice Voivodeship after World War II, in 1945.

In 1968, the local church of Saint Mary of the Angels was visited by the Primate of Poland Stefan Wyszyński and cardinal Karol Wojtyła (future Pope John Paul II). The 1970s saw the construction of the Katowice Steelworks, which is nowadays the biggest steel producing plant in Poland, after privatization owned by ArcelorMittal. In the 1970s the town expanded territorially and economically. In 1975 and 1977 the neighboring localities of Strzemieszyce Małe, Strzemieszyce Wielkie, Ząbkowice and others became suburbanized. The population of Dąbrowa Górnicza reached its peak in 1982 with 152,373 inhabitants. In 1984, the neighboring settlements of Marianki and Ratanice were included within the city limits of Dąbrowa Górnicza as new districts. In the 1990s all local coal mines were closed, because of lack of coal. But the oldest part of the town Reden still exists. In 1993, the neighboring settlement of Trzebiesławice was also included within the city limits as a new district.

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