Surviving Szyb II headframe and shaft of former KWK Boże Dary, Katowice, retained for underground pumping and ventilation after mine closure.
Szyb II was one of the two central production shafts of Kopalnia Węgla Kamiennego Boże Dary, a hard coal colliery in the Kostuchna district of Katowice. The mine was originally constructed in 1901–1903 by the Pless princes and began extraction in 1902. Boże Dary was merged into KWK Murcki from 1 January 1976, with Szyb II becoming one of the principal extraction shafts of the combined complex.
The Boże Dary section was transferred to Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń on 1 July 2015. Unlike the adjacent Szyb I, which was demolished in 2021, the Szyb II headframe and all associated equipment were retained. The shaft now serves as a man-riding and intake ventilation shaft providing access to underground pumping stations at the 416-metre and 600-metre levels, which protect the neighbouring KWK Murcki-Staszic and Mysłowice-Wesoła collieries from flooding.
The Szyb II headframe and several historically valued buildings from the 1901–1903 construction period — including the former bath-house that subsequently housed the mine directorate — also survive on the site.
Kopalnia Węgla Kamiennego Boże Dary was constructed in 1901–1903 on lands belonging to the Pless princes at Podlesie, close to Kostuchna, to exploit the Emanuel coal seam. The mine was named Böer and began production in 1902. It was renamed Boże Dary in 1937 alongside the renaming of its original shafts.
During the Second World War prisoner-of-war labour was used from 1940 to 1945 under the revived German name Böerschächte. After nationalisation the mine was successively assigned to the Mikołów and Jaworzno-Mikołów Coal Industry Associations. The worst disaster in the mine's history occurred on 18 July 1956 when a methane and coal dust explosion killed 24 miners and rescuers.
Output grew through the post-war decades, reaching 930,730 tonnes in 1970. From 1 January 1976 Boże Dary was formally integrated into KWK Murcki, with the production complex progressively relocated to the Boże Dary site, where Szyb I and Szyb II became the primary extraction shafts. Szyb II served during the operational period as an exhaust ventilation shaft.
On 1 July 2015 the Boże Dary section was transferred to Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń as part of the broader restructuring of the Upper Silesian coal industry. Pumping infrastructure on the 416-metre level was modernised after transfer, allowing the decommissioning of pumping stations at the Czułów shaft and at the 183-metre level of Szyb I. Szyb II was subsequently reconfigured to serve as an intake ventilation shaft and man-riding shaft giving access to pumping stations at the 416-metre and 600-metre levels, which protect KWK Murcki-Staszic and Mysłowice-Wesoła from mine water ingress. The headframe of Szyb II was retained with its full complement of equipment.
Historically valued surface buildings surviving from the 1901–1903 construction period were also preserved, among them the former bath-house building that later housed the mine directorate and subsequently the Katowice branch offices of Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń. The adjacent Szyb I headframe, Poland's tallest single-strut winding tower, was demolished between March and April 2021. Szyb II thus remains as the principal surviving above-ground industrial structure of the former KWK Boże Dary complex.