The History of Katowice Museum is a useful primer for a city that can be misunderstood if you only see its shopping centres and concert halls. Exhibits cover the settlement's growth, mining and industry, Silesian identity, and the domestic interiors of a rising urban middle class.
It is worth visiting before exploring Nikiszowiec or the post-industrial culture zone. Katowice's appeal is not obvious in the way Kraków's is, and this museum helps explain why the city looks, works, and argues about itself the way it does.