Bielsko-Biała is a city located at the foot of the Silesian and Little Beskids, known for the production of Fiat 126 p cars and an animated film studio, whose symbol in the city space is the Reksio Monument.
The city was founded in the mid-twentieth century by merging the Silesian Bielsko and Małopolska Biała. These cities used to be centers of the textile industry in the past. The House of Weaver Museum reminds of this. After the Second World War, a Fiat factory was built here, where the famous Toddlers were produced. This part of the city's heritage is reminded by the Automotive Museum run by the local Automobilklub.
The historic city center is located in the former Bielsko and is concentrated around a large market square. It is surrounded by tenement houses with eclectic and neoclassical facades. At the back of the square, there is a modernist cathedral, one of the most recognizable buildings in Bielsko-Biała. It is also not far from here to the eclectic Castle of the Sułkowski Princes, the former owners of Bielsko, which now houses the Museum.
An interesting district of the city is the so-called Bielski Zion. It is an area inhabited by Protestants in the past. In its center there is the Evangelical Cathedral and the only statue of Martin Luther in Poland. There are nineteenth-century buildings of old schools and offices and tenement houses of wealthy industrialists who formed the Bielsko elite. There is an evangelical cemetery on the outskirts of the district.
In Bielsko you can also see the still active Jewish cemetery, next to which there is a historic Funeral Home.
The industrial development of Bielsko and Biała at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in the reconstruction of the city center. Many Art Nouveau tenement houses and public buildings appeared then, and the Art Nouveau buildings in Bielsko-Biała are among the best in Poland. The monumental town hall building with an unusually richly decorated facade was also built in the former Biała at that time.
Bielsko-Biała is a good starting point and a base for hiking in the Silesian and Mały Beskids. Szyndzielnia towers over the town, which can be reached by a gondola lift and from where you can start hiking, among others. towards Szczyrk.
