Interwar-period villa development in Katowice’s so-called South District: overview, authenticity and integrity of the cultural landscape

The development of Katowice was determined by many factors – political, economic and spatial, as well as the railways and industry. The two decades of the interwar period proved especially crucial here, as the city, as a capital of the autonomous Silesian Voivdoeship, expanded considerably during this time. The objective of this study was to identify distinctive features of the landscape of the so-called south district of Katowice and the stock and state of preservation of the districts’ villa-type buildings. This area is positively distinguished by its architectural and landscape diversity, and there are visible links to 19th-century urban planning principles here. The villa buildings, on the other hand, together with their surrounding gardens, are a fairly diverse group, occurring in compact ensembles. The largest group consists of buildings that form so-called colonies, with the next most-numerous being singular buildings that form layouts or individual structures that supplement colonies and layouts. Stylistically, they present a wide spectrum – from Academic Classicism to Functionalism. Unfortunately, as found over the course of this research, modernisation works negatively affect the buildings’ authenticity, and thus their historical, cultural and landscape values diminish.