DABROWA GORNICZA

city, Katowice wojewdztwo (province), southwestern Poland, on the Czarna Przemsza River just northeast of Katowice city. The town flourished when coal mining began there in 1796. During the 19th century it served as a mining and metallurgical research centre and had the first Polish mining school (1889). It became a town in 1916. Dabrowa Grnicza is situated in the Grny Slask (Upper Silesia) industrial area and on the KatowiceWarsaw rail line. It is located over one of the thickest coal deposits in the world, measuring up to nearly 80 feet (24 m) in thickness. Part of the coal seam in the General Zawadzki mine is now a national geological reserve. Pop. (1990 est.) 136,000.