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The first historical mention of Orzegów comes from 1313 – documents speak of a man named Marcin, from Orzegów, the witness to the selling of the village by the Duke of Bytom, Siemowit. Orzegów appears as well in the Peter’s Pence register of 1366. Since then, it had been passing from one noble family to another until 1826, when it was bought by the Upper Silesian industrialist Karol Godula. The sole and main branch of the region’s economy at the time was agriculture. Godula’s main goal, however, was to maximally industrialise the region by means of the exploitation of natural resources. After Godula’s death in 1848, Orzegów was inherited by his only heiress, Joanna Gryzik, who married Count Hans Ulrich Schaffgotsch in 1858. Orzegów would remain in the hands of the Schaffgotsch family until the end of World War II. The oldest coal mine in Orzegów was Król Dawid (established already in the 18th century). The first mine started by Karol Godula in his estate was Orzegów, formally granted in 1832. Orzegów’s independence ended in 1951, when it was incorporated into Ruda.

THE TOURIST ROUTE

HISTORIC BUILDINGS IN THE DISTRICT*