The Pszów City Hall will relocate to a historic mine, and the building will be converted into housing for those most in need. This is just one of many stages in the transformation of the decommissioned “Anna” coal mine, and at the same time, an important opportunity to strengthen Pszów’s identity in multiple ways, drawing on its mining history. Is this exactly what revitalization should look like in a small town?
Today, the City Hall in Pszów is located in three separate buildings. To take care of their business, residents must navigate between the buildings at 534 Pszowska Street—a 1910 tenement house at the front, and the multi-family buildings tucked right behind it. Wandering through this maze will soon be a thing of the past, as the Pszów City Hall is moving to a new location —and it won’t be a modern office building, but a former warehouse of the historic “Anna” Coal Mine on Księdza Pawła Skwary Street.
The Pszów City Hall building
© Pszów City Hall
City Hall in the warehouse of the historic mine
The “Anna” Coal Mine covers nearly 8 hectares of post-industrial land, which ceased to serve its original function after the plant’s closure in 2012. Previously, the complex—located about a kilometer from St. John Paul II Square, Pszów’s main public space—expanded over decades, both before and after World War II.
The new headquarters of the Pszów City Hall in the warehouse of the “Anna” Coal Mine
© Pszów City Hall
One of the elements of the original complex is the four-story main warehouse from 1918, located near the historic “Chrobry I” shaft, designed by Hans Poelzig. It is there that the new headquarters of the City Hall in Pszów will be located:
The core of this project will be the renovation of the four-story main warehouse building. The facility will be adapted for social and administrative functions. It will house: the new City Hall, the Registry Office, City Council chambers, and a multipurpose hall.
— as stated on the Pszów City Hall website.
Warehouse of the former “Anna” coal mine
© Pszów City Hall
As part of the renovation, structural changes will also be necessary, along with the construction of a new roof and new systems, including solar panels, as well as accessibility features for people with disabilities. The lack of these features is one of the main reasons for the planned relocation of the Pszów City Hall.
The problem lies in the general condition of the buildings, difficult access for people with special needs, inconvenient access to offices on upper floors, a narrow stairwell, limited availability of restrooms, including for people with disabilities, and a lack of sufficient parking spaces. In practice, these barriers are particularly felt by the elderly, people with disabilities, parents with small children, and residents with temporary mobility issues. The city had already received reports regarding the lack of accessibility at the current location. The problem is therefore not merely organizational, but concerns actual access to public services.
— writes the Pszów city portal.
There is little that can be done about this situation, as the structure of the Pszów City Hall buildings, as well as the limited amount of adjacent land, make it impossible to easily add an elevator shaft to them. The move to the “Anna” mine warehouse is therefore inevitable, but this does not mean that the buildings at 534 Pszowska Street will be demolished or left vacant.
The current City Hall building in Pszów will be converted into 12 municipal apartments
© Pszów City Hall
new apartments in the old City Hall
The development of social housing is not limited to large cities—Pszów intends to join this nationwide trend, and in the most sustainable way possible. The city does not plan to build new structures, but rather to adapt existing stock. The current City Hall buildings in Pszów will be converted into apartments for low-income residents. According to the city’s website, approximately 12 municipal apartments could be created in the buildings at 534 Pszowska Street; however, the final number depends on the renovation plan, which has yet to be finalized. It is already known, however, that these will be units located in a relatively attractive spot in the town center, with balconies overlooking an inner courtyard.
The “Anna” Coal Mine in Pszów
photo: Kamil Czaiński © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
non omnis moriar
The “Anna” Coal Mine was finally closed in February 2012, 180 years after its founding. At the peak of its development, which occurred at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the “Anna” mine employed 5,900 people from Wodzisław Śląski and the surrounding area (Pszów was then a district of that city). When the mine was closed, “Anna” had only 1,300 employees. Three years later, in 2015, some of the buildings of the former “Anna” mine—including the former casino, the combined heat and power plant complex, and the “Chrobry I” shaft (designed by Hans Poelzig)—were listed as historic monuments.
The historic “Chrobry” shaft at the “Anna” Coal Mine in Pszów
photo: Marek Mróz © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
A model revitalization in a small town
In 2018, Pszów became the owner of over 7 hectares of land formerly occupied by the “Anna” Hard Coal Mine. Unlike many other towns where post-industrial buildings stand idle or are converted into expensive apartments, the city quickly began putting the buildings to use, and they will now serve all residents. Some of them are home to private businesses, but the most valuable, historic buildings, along with the adjacent land, have the potential to become a model example of revitalization in a small town.
A public library has been established in the engine room and women’s bathhouse at the “Anna” Coal Mine in Pszów
photo: Kamil Czaiński © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
library in the mine
Last year, a new branch of the public library was opened to the residents of Pszów in the oldest building of the “Anna” Coal Mine. The restored women’s bathhouse and the “Jan” shaft hoist engine room from the mid-19th century also house the Social Welfare Center and the Educational Institutions Service Complex. As Ksenia and Bogdan Helis, the authors of the historic machine room revitalization project, emphasized in an interview with Radio90, despite the change in function, they managed to preserve the building’s most distinctive features, including its open-plan, hall-like interior. The heart of the building remains the historic hoist machine with its enormous wheel, around which a mezzanine was constructed.
The building’s surroundings have also been revitalized, featuring an outdoor reading area, a playground, parking lots, sidewalks, and street furniture, as well as plenty of new greenery. As part of the first phase of the project, a nursery, a Center for Non-Governmental Organizations, “start-up” spaces, an educational trail, and a social integration zone are also planned.
The “Anna” Coal Mine in Pszów
photo: Kamil Czaiński © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
The practical dimension of revitalization
The current project to convert the warehouse building into a City Hall facility in Pszów is scheduled for 2027–2029. Importantly, these are not just grandiose promises that will ultimately remain mere ideas on paper. Most of the funds needed to carry out the revitalization of the remaining buildings of the “Anna” Coal Mine have already been secured.
The most important arguments for relocating the office are practical: better accessibility, greater functionality, administration concentrated in one place, and the potential to reduce maintenance costs. The existing buildings can also be repurposed, including for residential use. For residents, however, it is essential that the new office headquarters be accessible, clear, and well-organized. It is precisely this that will determine the daily, practical impact of the entire project.
— concludes the Pszów city portal.
