Sosnowiec

Ostrowy Górnicze district in my photos



Ostrowy Górnicze - originally "Niemce", now a forgotten name of the village. As a settlement, it grew up in a forest around Przemsza River in an unknown period. The first historical records come from 1590, but the village was probably founded in the Piast era by the settlement of German prisoners of war or specially brought German settlers, more or less after the Tatar invasions that depopulated the lands of today's Zagłębie. The actual career of "Niemce" began when in 1814 coal was unexpectedly discovered here, while digging a well for a brewery. Initially, the "Feliks" opencast (later deep-sea) mine was opened, which was named after its founder (and tenant of the village), Count Feliks Łubieński. The mine was quickly modernized into an underground mine - unfortunately, the efforts of the builders were consumed by a fire in 1824, which was only extinguished by flooding the sidewalks. Once again, in a slightly different place, closer to Maczki, coal was mined in a new mine, also "Feliks". In 1841, this mine was also consumed by fire - in the same year one of the first rescue operations was carried out on Feliks, but it did not save the new mine from deaths. In 1857, the Russian government leased the mine for the needs of the Warsaw-Vienna Iron Road.
In 1874, mining in the village of Niemce was taken over by the Warsaw Society of Coal Mines and Metallurgical Works, new shafts were broken, and the Ostrowy and "Teodor" colonies in the hamlet of Grabocin were modernized. The activity of the Warsaw society was very fruitful. Improvements in the equipment of the mines were introduced, clerks and workers' colonies were built, schools, a nursery, a people's house, a hall for games and theater performances, an inn with a ballroom, billiards and a reading room, and a public library. A park was arranged for the use of workers, a hospital was also built, a household school for girls and a bathing house for workers were built. In addition to mining, a zinc smelter was opened near the former "Feliks" mine (owners: Konstanty Wolicki and Piotr Steinkeller), which later became the property of the Russian government, but ceased operations in 1949. In the interwar period, Niemce belonged to the so-called of the Olkusko-Siewierska commune with its seat in Strzemieszyce.
After 1945, the name of the town was changed to Ostrowy Górnicze (after the name of the hamlet), then it was merged with Kazimierz and in 1967 the city of Kazimierz Górniczy was established. The city existed until 1975, when it was incorporated into Sosnowiec as two separate districts.

Source:
1. Jan Przemsza-Zieliński "Known and ... unknown Sosnowiec" (1992), Sowa-Press, Ekspres Zagłębiowski
2. Marian Kantor-Mirski "From the past of Zagłębie D±browskie and its surroundings" (1931-32)



Photos being prepared