Knurów

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title: "Knurów" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["knurów", "cities-and-towns-in-silesian-voivodeship", "gliwice-county", "intelligenzaktion-massacre-locations", "socialist-planned-cities", "sites-of-soviet-world-war-ii-crimes-in-poland"] topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knurów" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Knurów
native_name
image_skyline	Knurów - Ratusz 01.jpg
image_caption	City hall in Knurów
image_flag	Flaga Knurowa.jpg
image_shield	Herb Knurów-2018.png
pushpin_map	Poland
pushpin_label_position	bottom
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name
subdivision_type1	Voivodeship
subdivision_name1	Silesian Voivodeship
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	Gliwice
subdivision_type3	Gmina
subdivision_name3	Knurów (urban gmina)
leader_title	City mayor
leader_name	Tomasz Rzepa
established_title	First mentioned
established_date	ca. 1295
established_title2	City rights
established_date2	1951
area_total_km2	33.95
population_as_of	2019-06-30
population_total	38310
population_density_km2	auto
population_urban	2746000
population_metro	5294000
timezone	CET
utc_offset	+1
timezone_DST	CEST
utc_offset_DST	+2
coordinates
postal_code_type	Postal code
postal_code	44-190 to 44-196
blank_name	Car plates
blank_info	SGL
blank1_name	Climate
blank1_info	Dfb
blank_name_sec2	Primary airport
blank_info_sec2	Katowice Airport
blank1_name_sec2	Highways
blank1_info_sec2	[[File:A1-PL.svg
blank2_name_sec2	National roads
blank2_info_sec2	[[File:DK78-PL.svg
blank3_name_sec2	Voivodeship roads
blank3_info_sec2	[[File:DW921-PL.svg
website	http://www.knurow.pl/
::

::callout[type=note] the town in Silesia ::

Knurów is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Bierawka River, a tributary of the Oder River.

History

Knurów's history as a city is relatively short, as it only became a town in 1951, when also the settlements of Krywałd and were included within its town limits as districts. However, Knurów's existence can be traced back as far back as ca. 1295–1305, when it was mentioned in the Liber fundationis episcopatus Vratislaviensis chronicle, and was part of Piast-ruled Poland. It was then mentioned as Knauersdorf or Cnurowicz, and later on mostly appeared in documents under its current name. Later on, it was also part of Bohemia (Czechia), Prussia and Germany.

Throughout centuries, Knurów was a private village, and among its owners were the Goszycki, Węgierski and Paczyński families. The town rapidly grew at the end of the 18th century as the Industrial Revolution came and vast coal reserves were found in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. In the late 19th century, the settlement had a population of 776. In 1904, the first mine shaft was opened, and in 1908-1909 a railway line connecting Knurów with Rybnik was built. In 1912, the first strike took place at the local mine.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Knurów_Pomnik_Powstańców_Śląskich_28_01_2012_DSC_6826.jpg" caption="[[Silesian Uprisings]] Monument"] ::

After World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence. Following a series of Polish Silesian Uprisings, and following the 1921 Upper Silesia plebiscite according to Versailles treaty, Knurów became again part of Poland. In the interwar period, Knurów developed intensively. New schools, stadiums, a pipeline connecting with Bełk and the first synthetic ammonia plant in Poland were built. On 26 July 1921, workers in Krywałd tried to dislodge 30 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had aggregated (solidified into one mass) in two wagons. When mining explosives were used on this solid mass the wagons exploded and killed nineteen people, one of the first ammonium nitrate disasters. In 1923, a monument to the participants of the Silesian Uprisings was unveiled. The coal industry continued growing well in the 20th century, and doubled its output with a new mine being built in 1961 in Szczygłowice.

Knurów and the present-day districts of Krywałd and Szczygłowice were invaded by Germany on September 1, 1939, the first day of the invasion of Poland and World War II. During the subsequent German occupation, the occupiers established and operated two forced labour subcamps (E75, E758) of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp in the town. A unit of the Home Army, the leading Polish resistance organization, was founded in Knurów in 1942. In January 1945, it was captured by the Soviets, who established a transit camp for local Polish Silesians who were deported to the Soviet Union (see Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)). Knurów was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

In 1951, Knurów was granted town rights. Several new schools were opened between 1964 and 1991, and new Catholic parishes were established in 1977–1983. More recently, in May 2015, riots ensued in the town after a Concordia Knurów fan was shot dead by police during a football match. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Knurów_Szpital_Miejski_28_01_2012_DSC_6807.jpg" caption="Hospital in Knurów"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Knurów,Poland-_panoramio.jpg" caption="Park in Knurów"] ::

Population

Knurów 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 town is 38,310 (2019).

Politics

Administratively Knurów has been part of the Silesian Voivodeship since the latter's formation in 1999; previously it was part of Katowice Voivodeship.

Economy

The town is usually associated with coal mining, as it lies in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. The coal mine was established in 1903 in Knurów on the initiative of Gustav von Velsen, who was a ministerial director at the Department of Mining in Berlin. In 2019, the mine was connected to the Szczygłowice Coal Mine.

Sport

The town is home to Concordia Knurów, a lower league football club which was founded in 1923, and famously where Jerzy Dudek started his career. Another famous athlete Agnieszka Dubiel, was a professional sailor for many years. She managed to stay in National Sailing Team and represent Poland on many European and World Championships. Her best result was 21st on Youth World Championship 2014.

The route of the 2016 Tour de Pologne cycling race ran through the town.

Twin towns – sister cities

Knurów is twinned with:

HUN Kazincbarcika, Hungary
SVK Svit, Slovakia

References

(2019-10-15). "Population. Size and structure and vital statistics in Poland by territorial division in 2019. As of 30th June". Statistics Poland.
"Kalendarium wydarzeń".
. (1883). "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom IV".
Wardzyńska, Maria. (2009). "Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion". [[Institute of National Remembrance.
"Working Parties".
(1950). "Rozporządzenie Prezesa Rady Ministrów z dnia 8 listopada 1950 r. w sprawie nadania ustroju miejskiego niektórym gminom w województwach: katowickim i warszawskim, gromadzie Hajnówka w województwie białostockim oraz zniesienia i zmiany granic niektórych miast i gmin w województwach katowickim i białostockim.".
Krzysztofik, Robert. (2007). "Lokacje miejskie na obszarze Polski. Dokumentacja geograficzno-historyczna". Wydawnictwo [[Uniwersytet Śląski.
"Project 1.4.3".
"Knurów Coal Mine".
"Miasto Partnerskie - Kazincbarcika". Knurów.
"Miasto Partnerskie - Svit". Knurów.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::