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Early history[edit]
Baroque Saint Anthony church
In the first half of the 18th century, Dąbrowa was a small agricultural settlement belonging to the Będzin parish of the Kraków Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province in the Kingdom of Poland. It was first mentioned on 25 July 1726, when the parish priest of Holy Trinity Church at Będzin noted a woman named Anna Lisowa from Dąbrowa. At the 1787 census of the Archdiocese of Kraków, the settlement numbered 184 inhabitants.
The districts of Dąbrowa, which for centuries had comprised separate villages, are much older. Trzebieszowice was first mentioned in the 12th century; Błędów was mentioned by Bishop of Kraków Iwo Odrowąż in the year 1220; Strzemieszyce and Ujejsce were mentioned in the 14th century; Gołonóg in the 15th century; and Ząbkowice was described by Polish historian Jan Długosz in the 15th century.
Industrial growth[edit]
After the Third Partition of Poland (1795), Dąbrowa was annexed by Prussia and incorporated into its newly formed province of New Silesia. The Prussians discovered rich deposits of coal here and the first coal mine was established by Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden in 1796. In 1799, first detailed map of this area was created, on which a settlement called Stara Dąbrowa is presented. It was located along a road from Kraków to Upper Silesia. The coal mine established by von Reden attracted workers, and a settlement was soon established around it.
In 1807, Dąbrowa was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw. After the duchy's dissolution in 1815, it became part of Russian-controlled Congress Poland. In 1846, the Cieszkowski Coal Mine was opened, named after Józef Cieszkowski. The Zinc Plant Konstanty operated as early as 1823, and the Huta Bankowa steel works, which is still in operation, was built in Dąbrowa Górnicza in 1834. Other factories were also established, including brickworks, a kitchenware foundry, a wire, nails and chains factory, and a steel and rail factory that supplied railroad tracks for the Warsaw–Vienna railway and Russian railways. The local cultural center was the Resursa, visited by writers Eliza Orzeszkowa, Maria Konopnicka, Stanisław Przybyszewski, and actress Helena Modrzejewska.
During the January Uprising, in February 1863, Dąbrowa was captured by Polish insurgents after their victory in the Battle of Sosnowiec nearby.
Sobieski Street 1928
In 1909, the gmina of Dąbrowa Górnicza was established by Tsarist authorities. Even though its population reached 30,000, the Russians were reluctant to grant Dąbrowa town charter, so it remained a village until 18 August 1916, when Austrian authorities, which during World War I occupied southern part of Congress Poland, agreed to establish the town. After the war, in 1918, Poland regained independence and control of the city. 15 local Polish boy scouts were killed in fights for Polish independence in 1914–1920. In the Second Polish Republic, Dąbrowa belonged to Kielce Voivodeship. According to the 1921 census, the town's population was 89.7% Polish, 9.8% Jewish and 0.2% French.
World War II[edit]
In September 1939, in the beginning of World War II, the city was invaded by Germany, and shortly afterwards the German Einsatzgruppe I operated in the city and committed various crimes against the Polish population. Also in September 1939, Wehrmacht troops carried out a massacre of 14 Polish boy scouts from nearby villages in the present-day district of Tucznawa. Poles from Dąbrowa Górnicza were among the victims of massacres committed by the Germans in other places, including Sosnowiec on September 4, 1939, and Celiny on June 4, 1940. Under German occupation the city was annexed directly to Germany, and included within the Upper Silesia Province. At least 14 Polish policemen from Dąbrowa were murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940. Further executions of Poles were carried out by the Germans during the war. Over 40 local Polish boy and girl scouts were killed by the Germans in various places, including the Auschwitz concentration camp and during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and over 60 local miners were also murdered in Auschwitz.
Memorials to local victims of WW2: miners murdered in Auschwitz, boy scouts killed by Germany, and policemen murdered in the Katyn massacre by Russia
In October 1941, the occupiers expelled over 100 Poles, who were then sent to forced labour either to Germany or to various factories in the region, while their houses were handed over to German colonists as part of the Lebensraum policy. The Germans also operated the E513 and E543 forced labour subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp at the local coal mine. More than 4,000 local Jews were enclosed in a ghetto, and later murdered in death camps.
In 1945, the town was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. In the following years, the Polish anti-communist resistance was active in the city, including the nationwide Freedom and Independence Association and the local Polish Youth Organisation "Crown of Liberation".
Recent history[edit]
Together with the Dąbrowa Basin, the city was transferred to Katowice Voivodeship in 1945. In 1960, the previously separate settlement of Gołonóg was included within the city limits.
In 1968, the local church of Saint Mary of the Angels was visited by the Primate of Poland Stefan Wyszyński and cardinal Karol Wojtyła (future Pope John Paul II).
The 1970s saw the construction of the Katowice Steelworks, which is nowadays the biggest steel producing plant in Poland, after privatization owned by ArcelorMittal. In the 1970s the town expanded territorially and economically. In 1975 and 1977, city limits were greatly expanded by including Strzemieszyce Wielkie, Strzemieszyce Małe, Ząbkowice and other surrounding settlements as new districts. The population of Dąbrowa Górnicza reached its peak in 1982 with 152,373 inhabitants. In 1984, the neighboring settlements of Marianki and Ratanice were included within the city limits of Dąbrowa Górnicza as new districts. From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Katowice Voivodeship.
In the 1990s, all local coal mines were closed, because of lack of coal. The oldest part of the town Reden still exists. In 1993, the neighboring settlement of Trzebiesławice was also included within the city limits as a new district.
