Derelict factories and foundries, blackened chimneys and abandoned maintenance yards of Silesia’s industrial boom represent the bulk of Silesia’s tourist offerings today. Grey, bleak for the most part…..Freedom Square’s small oval of greenish pleasantry stands out in the urban tangle and was the city’s main axis point in the first city plan of 1860. There used to be “Tomb of the Unknown Insurgent” in 1923, unveiled by one of the heroes of the Silesian Uprisings, Wojciech Korfanty (see below for info on him). However during Soviet rule, that memorial was replaced with a monument of 2 thuggish tommy-wielding Red Army soldiers standing atop a truly hideous concrete pedestal – they were removed in 2014 after years of protests. Some city functionary wasn’t specific enough in their instruction…because while the thugs have gone, the hideous pedestal remains…… 🙂
I went looking for and found some treasures but they were difficult to find. 
Tatiana’s restaurant – delicious sour rye soup (zurek) and wabbit for lunch! 
Always love a good statue, especially when they are of figures that have created change i their time….and these 2 couldn’t be different from each other… Józef Klemens Piłsudski was Chief of State (1918–22), “First Marshal of Poland ” (from 1920), and defacto leader (1926–35) of the Second Polish Republic. 
From mid-World War I he had a major influence in Poland’s politics and was an important figure on the European political scene. He was the person most responsible for the creation of the Second Polish Republic in 1918, 123 years after it had been taken over by Russia, Austria and Prussia.
A Polish national activist, journalist and politician, Wojciech Korfanty (April 20, 1873 – August 17, 1939) achieved infamy as a paramilitary leader during the Silesian Uprisings. Born the son of a Polish Silesian miner, in his early life Korfanty studied philosophy, law and economics at the University of Breslau (Wroclaw) becoming involved in Polish nationalist circles as a young man and joining the secret nationalist society “Z,” which resisted the Germanisation of Upper Silesia’s Polish population in the decades prior to World War I. After World War I, Korfanty was one of the chief advocates of joining Upper Silesia and other eastern German territories to the new post-war Polish Republic. 
As diplomacy failed, ‘Uprisings’ were successful in forcing the German authorities to leave Upper Silesia. Korfanty was largely credited by Poles for his role in the outcome when Silesia’s most valuable industrial districts were granted to Poland after the war.
Consulted my crib notes and decided to drive to Katowice’s no 1. attraction, Nikiszowiec estate. It’s a worker’s housing estate of red brick apartment blocks grouped around gardenlike courtyards, there’s a red brick church and other buildings, all close to the mine and green surroundings…. a pearl of social housing architecture; designed in the late 19thC, Nikiszowiec initially was a coal miners’ settlement of Giesche mine between 1908–1918. In 1960, Nikiszowiec was incorporated as a part of Katowice. 
Driving from Cesky Krumlov to Brno, my GPS took me via a very strange and longer route than I anticipated. I’m looking at the map, I’m looking at the GPS and the 2 don’t seem to be ‘communicating’. Arggh. Anyway, found medieval Castle Kamen along the way, an important strategic point for Hussite troops in the religious wars in the 15th century. Really bad weather along the way and many a roadworks to hold traffic up on the freeway, where I was driving. Got into Brno at 16:00 and was really tired. Watched a European Volleyball Championship game on TV, Czech vs Belgium…so close… but Czech Republic won. Then read a bit of a “the Road to Ruin”, by Niki Savva….got me to sleep pretty quick. Haha! 
It is a national cultural monument and one of the most important pieces of architecture in South Moravia. The interior is mostly Baroque. Beautiful detail on wooden pulpit staircase. What an amazing ‘confessional’!
Just a few kilometres away…I parked my car down a side street, and walked up (serious huffy puffy!) to Špilberk Castle.
Its construction began as early as the first half of the 13th century by the Přemyslid kings and completed by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. From a major royal castle established around the mid-13th century, and the seat of the Moravian margraves (military commanders) in the mid-14th century, it was gradually turned into a huge baroque fortress (considered the harshest prison in the Austro-Hungarian empire) and then into barracks. This prison had always been part of the Špilberk fortress. At the same time Špilberk was used as a prison, Protestants were the first prisoners forced to serve time here, followed later by participants in the revolutions of 1848–49, although hardened criminals, thieves and petty criminals were also kept here. There was a Modern Art exhibition today and I liked the following two paintings…
Loved some of the other buildings in the neighbourhood…
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