ELSA Katowice

Description ELSA Katowice is a local group situated in the southern part of Poland in Upper Silesian region having its headquarters at University of Silesia in Katowice. Most of the students come either from the Upper Silesia and Dabrowa Basin (pol. Zaglebie Dabrowskie) regions or from closely located Lesser Poland or Sub-Carapathian regions. This fact makes studying here a big school of different human behaviours, habits and regional languages.

Katowice is the most important city of Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area. Taking the nearby towns it is a home of altogether 5 million people what makes it the biggest urban region in Poland. For years Katowice was the heart of industrial life of Poland. But the reality has been changed. Nowadays, it is more and more diffcult to find a working mine or a factory because most of them have been changed into the museums or the shopping centres. In the present Katowice and the surroundings are rather the service centre with a lot of green areas that are friendly for its inhabitants. Do you want to stroll down the historicall and lovely streets? No problem, there are plenty of them. Do you want to take a rest after a hard day? You can always spend your time by the the beautiful lakes „Trzy Stawy”. Do you want to party? Mariacka St. with dozens of pubs and restaurants is famous among the students in whole Poland. And remember about the museums settled in coal mines that enable you to come down even 300 meters under the ground and explore them, if you wish even in total darkness, about Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra where the most important music concerts in Poland take place and with a world-class acoustics and about „Spodek” arena famous in whole country that looks like an UFO spaceship that for years has been an arena of the sport events and concerts.

You also cannot forget about the places near Katowice that offer you a lot of atractions like Bedzin with its fairy, medieval castle and with its strong influence of jewish culture, Dabrowa Gornicza with its wonderful green areas and the four lakes „Pogoria”, Zabrze with its open for tourists part of the active coal mine about 300 meters under the ground or Chorzow with its legendary Silesian Stadium – called the national stadium in the near past.