Ruda Śląska

Ruda Slaska is a city county in the Silesian Voivodeship of southern Poland, on the Klodnica River in the Silesian Highlands near Katowice, with a population of 135,008 as of December 2021, making it the 26th-largest city in the country. A village existed on the site as early as 1243, but the modern city grew out of rapid 19th and early 20th century industrialization built on coal, steel and zinc production, and several separate settlements were only administratively united in the 1950s. Under German occupation from 1939 to 1945 the area suffered forced labor camps and the killing of Polish teachers under the Intelligenzaktion program, and although heavy industry has scaled back since 1989, the Halemba coal mine still operates and the city remains part of the wider Katowice urban area.