Rural idyll in Katowice? Welcome to Zarzecze
Text from 2017. Laws, rates and prices may have changed since then. Ask an agent
Katowice and the countryside – two extremely different concepts that cannot be equated. Especially as Katowice is a city of typically industrial character, a centre of the Upper Silesian Industrial Region. And yet this is only a false impression and a stereotype held by people who do not know the city very well. Katowice is not only heavy industry and mining, but also agricultural gems such as Zarzecze. The district was once a village in the Kostuchna municipality, and was incorporated into the administrative boundaries of Katowice only in 1975. To this day it has a typically rural character, which is why houses for sale in Katowice in Zarzecze are particularly attractive to people who wish to combine life in a big city with rural calm.
Zarzecze is part of the southern group of districts (together with Murcki, Piotrowice-Ochojec, Kostuchna and Podlesie). To the west it borders the town of Mikołów. The district covers 5.08 sq km and has a population of 1,902. Development is concentrated around ul. gen. D. Grota-Roweckiego, ul. Szarotek and ul. Kanałowa.
A characteristic landmark of Zarzecze is the Church of Our Lady, Help of Christians, dating from 1985.
As statistics show, Zarzecze is among those districts of Katowice whose population grew at a time when others were recording declines. Zarzecze is the place on the city map that can confidently be described as the centre of Katowice's agriculture. In Zarzecze and Podlesie, farmland covers more than 100 hectares.
An important element of Zarzecze's natural terrain is the Mleczna river flowing through it – a tributary of the Gostynia that rises in Piotrowice. Because the river valley is prone to flooding, residents are constantly working to protect it from development.
What is worth seeing in Zarzecze? Besides beautiful nature and the unhurried pace of life, there are also many heritage-protected sites, including the complex of a former 19th-century manor farm on ul. gen. S. Grota-Roweckiego, and residential houses, cottages and farmsteads, which attest to Zarzecze's strong ties with the idyllic life of the countryside.
