Gliwice, Poland

Gliwice is located in southern Poland, about 25 km (16 miles) west of Katowice.  The city was founded in 1250 and it's home to just over 180.000 people.  Gliwice is one of the oldest cities in Upper Silesia, is an important industrial centre and a university town.  On Friday evening, we hopped on a train for a weekend away.

Gliwice where is WWII began.  Prior to the war, the city was called Gleiwitz and it was a part of Germany.  On 31 August 1939, German SS officers, wearing Polish military uniforms, commode a false-flag attack on the radio station.  Nazi Germany used this as an excuse to invade Poland the next day which was the start of WWII.

The Gliwice Radio Tower is the world's last wooden radio tower.  It is 118 metres (387 feet) tall and it is part of a local museum and a registered historic monument.

The Market Square dates back to the late 13th century making it one of the oldest medieval squares in Upper Silesia.

In the centre of the square is the neoclassic town hall and a fountain.  Around the square are a number of restaurants and cafes.

Saint Bartholomew's Church dates back to the late 1200s.  It was rebuilt in the 15th century and expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Christ the King Church is a Catholic Church that was consecrated in 1935.

The All Saints Church was built in the late 15th to early 16th century.  The exterior is Gothic and the interior is Baroque.  The tower is about 63 metres (207 feet) tall.

The Church of the Holy Cross is a Baroque era parish church that was built in 1623.  It is part of a monastery complex and is a registered cultural heritage monument.

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a wooden church that was built in 1493.  It was moved to its current location in 1925, near an old German cemetery. 

At Starokozielski Park is the Memorial Sarcophagus of French Soldiers.  It is a war memorial for 71 French soldiers who died while serving in Upper Silesia in 1920-1922 following WWI.

The Jews House of Remembrance is a branch of the Gliwice Museum focused on the history of the Jews in Upper Silesia.  The building was completed in 1903 and located next to an old Jewish cemetery.

There are over 600 tombstones in the cemetery.

Back in 1929 there were approximately 2.200 Jews in Gliwice.  Only 25 survived WWII with all of them being in mixed marriages with gentiles.

The Red Army Cemetery was established in 1951.  

There are about 2500 Soviet soldiers buried here.

The Weichmann Textile House was built in 1922.  It was built as a textile and department store.  In 1988it was designated as a historic monument.

The 19th century Chopin Park is home to the municipal Palm House, one of the country's largest.  

The brick water tower was built in 1918.

Vila Caro was built in 1885 for a local industrialist.  Today it is a museum.

Piast Castle was built in the mid-1300s.  Today it is part of the city museum.

The Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul was completed in 1900.  The church became a cathedral in 1992.

Gliwice has a street art scene and we found an industrial area that was full of various murals.

We enjoyed our little Polish city break weekend.  Well worth the trip.

Czech Dialects

There's a difference between formal, written Czech and colloquial spoken Czech.  Standard Czech is what you'll hear across the country on the nightly news.  However, everyday Czech is a bit different.  

Just as there are three distinct regions in Czechland there are three primary Czech dialects to be found.  There's a dialect spoken in Silesia, near the Polish border, that a mishmash of Czech and Polish.  The dialect is actually closer to Polish than it is to Czech.  That doesn't mean that people there can't, or don't, speak standard Czech but the accent can be tough to understand if you're not used to it.  It's been referred to as "unintelligible funny Polish-like gibberish."

The most widely used spoken Czech is the variety found in Bohemia.  There are some grammatical differences from standard Czech.  There are also some pronunciation differences where Bohemians have more open vowel sounds than Moravians, especially in Prague.

In "Bohemian" -ý becomes -ej and -é becomes -ý.  The word dobrý (good) becomes dobrej  and dobré becomes dobrý.  Given the seven Czech cases there are more words to keep up with.

The declension of můj (my) gets changed from: mého to mýho, mému to mýmu, mé to mý, mém to mým, mých to mejch, mým to mejm, and mými to mejma.

The declension of dobrý changes word forms from: dobrý to dobrej, dobré to dobrý, dobrého to dobrýho, dobrému to dobrýmu, dobrém to dobrým, dobrých to dobrejch, dobrým to dobrejm, dobří to dobrý, and dobrými to dobrejma.

In Bohemia they don't really follow the rules for the 7th (Instrumental) case when it comes to plural words.  They just use -ama or -ma for everything.  So hranokly (French fries) becomes hranolkama, brambory (potatoes) becomes bramborama, and auty (cars) becomes autama.

In Bohemia, then tend to put a "v" sound before words that start with "o".  Okno (window) becomes vokno, oko (eye) becomes voko, omáčka (sauce) becomes vomáčka, ostrý (sharp) becomes vostrej, ospalý (sleepy) becomes vospalej...

Moravians don't do any of this.  Another thing that distinguishes people from Prague is that when they speak it is kind of singsongy.

I'm told that Moravians speak better proper Czech than Bohemians do.  However, Moravia has more local dialects.  And Moravians for sure don't sing when they speak.  

The biggest pronunciation differences in the Moravian dialect are:

-í/ý becomes é.  The word for "mill" in Czech is mlýn but becomes mlén.

-y becomes e.  The plural world for "fish" is ryby but it becomes rebe.

-the diphthong ou becomes ú.  The world for "flour" is mouka but it becomes múka.

In Czech, "I am" is já jsem but in Morava you'll hear já su.  "I want" is chci but you'll often hear people say chcu.  

There's some different vocabulary used in Moravia.  

In Brno, we have our own dialect called Hantec.  It's a mixture of standard Czech, the Moravian dialect, German and Yiddish.  Hantec is spoken mostly by older people but many Hantec words are used by everyone in everyday conversation.  Šalina is the most well known word.  It means "tram" but the rest of the country uses the world tramvaj.  When I'm in Prague and say "šalina" people instantly know that I'm from Brno.

Czech Citizenship Exam: Regions and Places

Here are the 10 study questions for the Czech Citizenship exam from section 19:  Regions and Places. 

1.  Mr. Novák lives in a small town in the South Bohemian Region.  Which city will he go to, to visit the regional office?

To České Budějovice.

2.  What is the name of the largest airport in the Czech Republic?

Václav Havel Airport Prague.

3.  Kateřina was accepted to study at Palacký University, which is the oldest university in Moravia.  In the city where she will study, there is also a UNESCO monument - the column of the Holy Trinity.  In which city will Kateřina study?

In Olomouc.

4.  In which city is the Regional Office of the Central Bohemian Region located?

In Prague.

5.  Which city is the centre of the Moravian-Silesian region?

Ostrava.

6.  Which number on the map indicates the Olomouc Region?

3.

7.  Perník (gingerbread) is a traditional Czech pastry with honey and spices.  Which city is famous for making gingerbread?  

Pardubice.

8.  Czechia consists of three historical countries: Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia.  Which of these cities lies in Moravia?

Zlín.  

9.  Which number on the map indicates the Vysočina Region?

2.

10.  Which of these cities is the industrial centre of northern Bohemia?

Ústí nad Labem.

Czech Silesia

České Slezsko is the Czech portion of Silesia.

Together with Bohemia and Moravia it is one of the three areas that make up Czech Republic.

Czech Silesia is located in the north-east portion of the country and it is home to about one million people.  The former capital is Opava and the largest city is Ostrava.

Silesia

Silesia is a region in Central Europe located along the Oder River.  It is home to about 8 million people and it a bit larger than Maryland.

Over the centuries it has been part of Moravia, Bohemia, the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prussia, and Germany.  After WWI, the majority became part of Poland with a German-speaking portion going to Czechoslovakia.  Today most of Silesia is located in Poland with small bits in Germany and Czechland.  Czech Silesia is home to one million people.

Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources specifically limestone, marble and basalt.

The three largest cities are Wrocław, Katowice, and Ostrava.

Katowice, Poland

Katowice is in southern Poland, about 3,5 - 4 hours from Brno.  It's 60 km (37 miles) from Częstochowa and 69 km (43 miles) from Kraków.  Katowice has a population over 297,000 while the greater metropolitan area is home to 2,2 million people.

From 1327 the region was part of the Kingdom of Bohemia.  Katowice was founded around 1580 and gained city status in 1865.  It has been home to Germans, Silesians, Jews, and Poles.  It's an industrial city with a history of coal mines and steel factories.

The Silesian Parliament was built from 1925-1929.  It was once the biggest building in the country.  In 1012, it was declared a historic monument.

The Scouts Memorial is dedicated to the scouts who, for two days, defended the city against the Germans at the start of the war in 1939.

The Katowice History Museum was established in 1981.  It's rather small but completely covers the city's history.

St. Mary's Church dates back to the 19th century and is one of the oldest in Katowice.

Spodek ("saucer" in Polish) opened in 1971 and it's a multipurpose area.  It can hold up to 11,500 people and until 2014 it was the country's largest indoor venue.

The Silesian Library was founded in 1922 and became a public library in the 1930s. It is home to more than 2,5 million volumes.  It's one of the most modern libraries in Poland.

The Polish Soldier Monument was unveiled in 1978 and honours those Poles who fought in WWII.  The bronze statue weights 80 tons.

The Silesian Theatre was originally built as the "German Theatre" in 1907.  It is the largest theatre in Silesia.

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul was built between 1898 and 1902.  It served as the city's cathedral from 1925 to 1955.

The Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music was founded in 1929.  It provides university level courses.

The Silesian Insurgents' Monument was unveiled in 1967.  It is dedicated those who took part in the Silesian Uprisings of 1919, 1920, and 1921.

The Evangelical Church was built from 1856-1858 and it is the oldest building in the city.

The Christ the King Cathedral was built between 1927 and 1955.  It's the largest in Poland and there is a coal alter to honour miners.