The Spodek is Katowice's most recognisable landmark — a vast circular arena that looks like a 1970s vision of a spacecraft that landed in the city centre and never left. It seats around 11,000 and hosts concerts, sporting events, and exhibitions year-round. Even if you do not have tickets for an event, the building is worth seeing from the outside: the shallow cone shape and the cable-hung roof are genuinely striking, and the surrounding plaza gives you space to take it all in.
Spodek Arena
Iconic flying saucer arena and Katowice landmark
A story
Spodek — the name means "flying saucer" in Polish — was designed by Maciej Gintowt and built between 1964 and 1971. Its distinctive tensegrity roof, a cable-supported structure that hangs from a central mast, was so unusual that it was used on the cover of a Polish engineering textbook. It was the largest arena in Poland for decades and remains the venue for the biggest concerts and sports events in Silesia.