Landmark reinforced-concrete colliery headframe in central Chorzów, now freely accessible as part of the Sztygarka heritage and hospitality complex.
Szyb Prezydent is the surviving headframe of the Prezydent shaft at the former eastern field of the KWK Król colliery in Chorzów. The parent mine, originally named Prinz Carl von Hessen and from 1800 known as Königsgrube (Król), was established in 1791 and grew to become one of the largest and best-equipped mines on the Upper Silesian coalfield. The Prezydent shaft itself was constructed in 1929–1933 to designs by engineer Ryszard Heileman of Katowice, using French technological models and financed by the Polish-French Skarboferm company.
Initially named Wielki Jacek, the shaft was renamed Prezydent in 1937 in honour of President Ignacy Mościcki. Mining ceased in 1993, and in 2008 the headframe was entered in the register of monuments. It now forms the centrepiece of the Sztygarka complex, which includes a hotel, restaurant, café, and cultural venue, and is part of the Industrial Monument Route of the Silesian Voivodeship.
The history of the mine associated with Szyb Prezydent begins in 1791, when Prussian fiscal authorities established a colliery named Prinz Carl von Hessen in the vicinity of what is today Chorzów Miasto railway station. The initiative came from Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden. By 1800 the mine had been renamed Königsgrube, rendered in Polish as Kopalnia Król. A shallow shaft named Schuckmann, 11 metres deep, was the first to be sunk in 1791; a second shaft, Prinzessin, soon followed, both initially working the shallow deposits. Drainage improvement arrived in 1797 with a steam engine driving pumps, and in 1814 the first steam hoisting machine was installed in the Einsiedel shaft. Further shafts — Lyda, Hedwig, Blücher, and Scharnhorst — were brought into service in subsequent years. In 1821 a mining clerk named Buchbach introduced a system of small vertical passages using gravity and braking mechanisms to speed coal transport, replacing underground horse-drawn haulage which had been abandoned in the early 1820s.
By 1873 annual output at the Król mine exceeded one million tonnes for the first time, reflecting the scale to which the enterprise had grown. The early twentieth century brought electrification: in 1908 the first electrically driven hoisting machine was installed in the Bahn II shaft. The mine was progressively divided into four working fields — western (from 1860, the Barbara-Wyzwolenie field), eastern (from 1864, the Jacek-Prezydent field), southern (from 1869, the Król Piast field), and northern (from 1898, the Wyzwolenie field).
By the late 1920s profitability had declined in parts of the complex, prompting major investment in the eastern field. Between 1929 and 1933 the new Jacek III shaft was constructed to a depth of 234 metres. The headframe was designed by engineer Ryszard Heileman of Katowice using French technological models and funded by the Skarboferm Polish-French company. It was a reinforced concrete single-leg back-stay structure approximately 42 metres high, with two rope pulleys of 5.5 metres diameter mounted in parallel. Together with its 10-tonne skip it was capable of raising over 320 tonnes of coal per hour. When complete it was among the most technically advanced headframes in Europe, and it remains today the last surviving reinforced concrete headframe of its type in Upper Silesia.
On 17 February 1937 the mine was reorganised into two separate entities: Prezydent Mościcki (covering the eastern and southern fields, with the Jacek III shaft at its heart) and Barbara-Wyzwolenie (covering the northern and western fields). The shaft was renamed Prezydent in honour of President Ignacy Mościcki. After the Second World War the name was simplified to KWK Prezydent. In 1972 the Prezydent mine was combined with the Polska mine in Świętochłowice, operating as Kopalnia Polska with the Chorzów workings designated Rejon Prezydent. In 1970 the Barbara-Wyzwolenie and Chorzów mines had merged as Barbara-Chorzów, which closed in 1993.
Mining activity at the Prezydent section came to an end in 1993. Partial demolition followed in 1996, when the winding engine building and sorting plant adjacent to the Prezydent headframe were removed. The headframe itself was not demolished, its reinforced concrete construction making dismantling prohibitively costly. The structure passed briefly to a private owner before the City of Chorzów recovered ownership. In 2008 the headframe was formally entered in the register of monuments. A renovation programme followed, including the installation of night illumination. In 2010 the headframe and the surrounding Sztygarka complex joined the Industrial Monument Route of the Silesian Voivodeship. A further major renovation in 2021 included new lighting and bird-deterrent installations. The Sztygarka complex today accommodates a hotel, the Restauracja Prezydent in the former engineers' and supervisors' canteen, a café, a liquid-air magazine repurposed as an event space, and cultural programming by Stowarzyszenie SZTYG.art. The headframe is freely accessible and open daily.