ABSTRACT
In a city that has been experiencing progressive development thanks to a service-based economy, the Silesian Museum stands out as one of Katowice’s biggest investments. Gifted with amazing collections gathered throughout its unsettled past and with an impressive new architectural complex at the deeply evocative site of the former Kopalni Ferdynand-Katowice coal mine where it was relocated in June 2015, the museum signposts the past industrial heritage, the present creative talent and the promising prospective of the region of southern Silesia. The transformation of the former coalmine complex, which had operated for 176 years, into a hub of cultural and creative industries, just 16 years after its final closure in 1999, is an exemplary case of urban regeneration through culture. Its finely executed conceptual, architectural and operational design can certainly be a point of reference for museum professionals and place branders as regards the soft power museums can generate for cities. This is a welcoming, evocative, immersive, informative, creative and fun, almost dreamlike museum.
