my city where I was born

History
    Mysłowice is one of the oldest towns of Upper Silesia. The town was founded at a commercial track from Wrocław to Kraków. The oldest traces of the settlement in Mysłowice go back to the 13th, or even 12th century. The exact date of founding the town is uknown, however, from the document issued by prince Mikołaj of Opawa and Racibórz and dated 1360 it does follow that in that time Mysłowice already existed as a town established according to Magdeburg city law.

Just as it came up Mysłowice was a border town. The Przemsza River, on which the town is situated, constituted the border between Silesia - a part of the kingdom of Bohemia then- and Poland. During the centuries the owners and sovereigns of the town often changed; the town belonged to Bohemia, Habsburgs, Prussia, Poland, 3rd Reich and again to Poland.

Here and now
    Mysłowice is located in south-eastern part of the Silesian Upland, on the right bank of the Przemsza River, on the border between Silesia and Little Poland, 10 km from Katowice and 70 km from Kraków. It is connected by a network of routes, railroads, bus and tram lines with other towns of the Upper Silesian conurbation. Convenient connection with other parts of Poland is provided by the A-4 motorway from Berlin to Kraków and the expressway from Warsaw to Cieszyn on the Poland's southern border with the Czech Republic. Both roads cross in Mysłowice. The railways running through the town connect it with Katowice, Wrocław, Szczecin, Kraków, Przemyśl and Oświęcim.

About 30 km from the town, there is an international airport Katowice-Pyrzowice, providing access to all European and overseas metropolies through Frankfort/Main and Warsaw. There is a terminal of broad-gauge railway, located also about 30 km from the town, which connects the Upper Silesian industrial district with Russia and the Ukraine. The town has 76 thousand inhabitants living on 66 square kilometres.
   Until the beginning of the 19th century Mysłowice was a small town, and the majority of its residents earned their living as farmers, shepherds and fishermen. It remained so until rich coal deposits were discovered by the end of the 18th and in the beginning of the 19th century and until the railroad from Wrocław to Kraków was built in 1846, triggering the grown of the town. The coal mining has remained the predominant branch of industry until now.

The system transformation at the beginning of the 1990s and the then following freedom of enterprise and introduction of the market economy caused significant changes of the economic landscape of the town. The number of enterprises rapidly increased and the state-owned companies tried to adopt to new conditions and/or get denationalized. The town became interesting to foreign investors as well, and they are now represented with many companies here. An attractive situation of the town at the intersection of important communication routes and in the centre of large markets, small distance to economic and cultural centres of Poland and Central Europe, and possibility to favourably purchase land for industrial or housing purposes are all advantages which positively influence further growth of the town.