Historic hard coal shaft complex with surviving early-twentieth-century pithead buildings, now in private ownership and accessible only from outside.
Szyb Cecylia — known also by the informal name Tzila — is a disused hard coal shaft complex located in Czernica, associated with the former Kopalnia Charlotte, the predecessor of KWK Rydułtowy-Anna. The shaft's origins lie in the 1840s, when initial sinking attempts near Czernica were stopped at approximately 40 metres depth by a severe inrush of water. The shaft was deepened to 173 metres in the early twentieth century and rebuilt between 1907 and 1910, producing a pithead building with winding tower, a winding-engine building, a lamp room, and a bathhouse.
In 1868 the mine had been technologically linked with the adjacent Kopalnia Leon and in the 1890s the Cecylia workings were incorporated into Charlottengrube. From that point the shaft served as a ventilation shaft complementary to the nearby Szyb Erbreich. The shaft was backfilled in the 1970s.
The buildings from 1907 to 1910 survive in adapted use: the engine room now serves as housing and a workshop, and the former lamp room and bathhouse are used as a residence and a storeroom. The complex is listed as a technical heritage site.
The coal mine at Czernica from which Szyb Cecylia descended has origins documented from at least the 1840s. Czernica had been known as coal-bearing ground since the late eighteenth century, when surveys confirmed workable seams in the Rybnik area, and the formal establishment of Kopalnia Charlotte in Czernica took place in 1806 on the estate of Friedrich von Sack. The first recorded sinking attempt at the Cecylia location dates to 1849.
Drążenie szybu was halted at approximately 40 metres when a sudden and severe inrush of water (kurzawka) made further progress impossible at that time. In 1868 the Cecylia mine was technologically linked with the adjacent Kopalnia Leon, incorporating new mining fields. In the 1890s the entire Cecylia operation was absorbed into the enlarged Charlottengrube (later Kopalnia Rydułtowy), which the Austrian investor group had assembled from several former independent mines in the area.
From that point Szyb Cecylia served as a ventilation shaft in support of the primary extraction function of the neighbouring Szyb Erbreich, providing the air circuit that the extraction operations required. At the beginning of the twentieth century the shaft was deepened to 173 metres and comprehensively rebuilt. The reconstruction programme, carried out between 1907 and 1910, produced the surface complex whose structures survive to the present: a pithead building with winding tower, the winding-engine room and electrical substation, a former cechownia (lamp room and muster hall), and a former bathhouse.
These buildings date from the period 1909 to 1910. They are characterised by the brick construction typical of Upper Silesian industrial architecture of that era and are included among the technical heritage objects of the region. In the 1970s the shaft was backfilled and ceased all functional use.
The surrounding site passed into private ownership. The buildings dating from 1909 to 1910 have been adapted to new uses: the engine room and electrical substation now serve as a residential building and workshop respectively, while the former cechownia and bathhouse are used as a residence and storeroom. The site is listed as a historic technical monument and can be viewed externally but is not open to the public.