Piekary Śląskie

There are two legends about the founding of Piekary, according to one it was founded in the late 10th century, and according to the other it was founded by Polish ruler Casimir I the Restorer in 1041. The area formed part of Poland after the establishment of the state in the 10th century. Under the Latinized name of Pecare, the settlement was mentioned in a document by the bishop of Kraków Paweł of Przemankowo from 1277.[3] The name is of Polish origin. It derives from the word piekarz (meaning "baker"), referring to possible bakers baking bread here for the nearby city of Bytom or from the word pieczara (meaning "cavern"), as caverns were supposedly created here as a result of exploitation of ore.[3]

As a result of the 12th-century fragmentation of Poland it was part of various Piast-ruled duchies, the last being the Duchy of Opole until 1526. Between 1303 and 1318, the first church and independent parish were created there. In the 15th century, the zinc and lead mining industry developed and the process of settlement evolution begun.

19th-century Polish printing house of Teodor Heneczek

In 1526 Piekary came under the suzerainty of the Habsburg Monarchy. Polish King John III Sobieski visited Piekary in 1683, while rushing to relief Vienna during the Ottoman invasion. The next years brought several peasant revolts against the German magnates. In 1697, newly elected King of Poland Augustus II the Strong stopped in Piekary before his royal coronation in Kraków. He converted to Catholicism in the local church and at the same time he sworn the pacta conventa. In January 1734, his son, elected king Augustus III of Poland, also stopped here, while heading for his royal coronation, and also sworn the pacta conventa here.[4]

In 1742 the settlement was annexed by Prussia and colonisation and Germanisation of Piekary Śląskie increased. The result was a strong movement towards maintaining the Polish origins of the land. In 1842, Piekary's rector, priest Jan Alojzy Ficek, commissioned a new neo-romanesque Basilica of St. Mary and St. Bartholomew designed by Daniel Grötschel. A painting of the Virgin Mary was placed there. In the mid-19th century, Teodor Heneczek founded a Polish printing house.[3] In the late 19th century Polish singing and gymnastic societies, reading rooms and the first patriotic organizations were established.[3] In 1905 the Polish Gymnastic Society "Sokół" was established in Piekary. Tram communication was available from 1894.[5]

Meeting of Stanisław Szeptycki and Wawrzyniec Hajda in Piekary in 1922

It was one of the centers of Silesian Uprisings and in 1922 was ceded to the Second Polish Republic by Weimar Germany as 86% of the population voted for joining the re-established Polish state. In June 1922, a symbolic ceremony of reintegration of Piekary with Poland took place. Polish Uhlans under the command of Stanisław Szeptycki entered Piekary, greeted by the St. Mary church by Wawrzyniec Hajda, local Polish independence activist and poet, nicknamed the "Silesian Wernyhora".[3] On July 10, 1939, Piekary Śląskie received city rights with effect from 1940. As a result of the outbreak of World War II, the actual implementation of this law did not take place until 1947.[3]

Monument to the miners of the Andaluzja coal mine, murdered by the Germans during World War II

During the war Piekary Śląskie was under German occupation from 1939 to 1945. During the occupation, the city's main street, Bytomska, was renamed Adolf Hitler Street (Adolf-Hitler-Straße).[5]

In 1973 Kozłowa Góra was included within the city limits as the northernmost district.[3] Under the administrative reform of 1975, the city limits were expanded by including the surrounding towns and settlements: Dąbrówka Wielka, Brzeziny Śląskie, Brzozowice and Kamień.[3]