Izba Śląska, Katowice

Silesian Chamber - a museum in Katowice's Giszowiec district at 3-3a Pod Lipami Square, displaying exhibits related to the culture and art of Upper Silesia as well as paintings and memorabilia of the painter Ewald Gawlik. It is a branch of the Municipal Cultural Center Szopienice-Giszowiec in Katowice.

The building was designed by Jerzy and Emil Zillmann and built in the early 20th century. It consists of two buildings connected together. Initially, it housed a stable, coachman's quarters and a coach house. In 1986, the Staszic mine gave the building to retired employees, who arranged a club in it. It was renovated and refurbished. During the renovation efforts were made to give the interior a traditional Silesian character.

His first cultural initiative was to look after the regional paintings of Ewald Gawlik. He was given three rooms upstairs in the building. He put there his couch, aquarium, birdcage, black closet and chest of drawers decorated with his own paintings. The exhibition of Gawlik's paintings dedicated to the region and its culture was slowly supplemented with traditional antique furniture and everyday necessities collected mainly by the employees of the mine and the residents of the estate. The Silesian Chamber was transformed from the Senior Citizens' House into a branch of the Szopienice-Giszowiec Municipal House of Culture and it houses a museum with exhibits connected with the history of the estate and the region, many personal souvenirs, equipment from the studio and a gallery of Ewald Gawlik's paintings.

In addition to the permanent exhibition of paintings and antique furnishings, permanent activities are also organized here.

Permanent activities in the Silesian Chamber: Upper Silesian Union, Przeróbka Senior Citizens' Club, Old Age Pensioners and Pensioners Club of the Solidarity Trade Union of the Staszic Coal Mine, Senior Citizens' Club of the Staszic Coal Mine, Senior Citizens' Club of the Staszic Coal Mine, Giszowianki Club

Earlier, when Gawlikówka was still inhabited by retired mine workers, museum lessons were organised there, intended mainly for school children: meetings with an ethnographer: everyday life, customs and rituals in Upper Silesia; a tour of Giszowiec; practical classes - sauerkraut pickling, Easter egg painting, bread and kolacz baking, butter, lard and sour soup making.