After a twenty-month break, a famous neon-sign is coming back to the Railway Station’s hall. The reconstructed umbrella pillars of the building are already home to the original letters forming the word “KATOWICE”.
The neon-sign used to greet and bid farewell to travelers in the Upper-Silesian capital for many years. It was removed on 20th of December 2010 before the start of demolition works on the former Katowice Railway Station’s main hall. Now the sign is mounted at exactly the same place where it used to hang for decades after the Station’s delivery in 1972.
The original letters had been cleaned and protected against adverse weather conditions before the neon-sign has been installed. Each letter is 116 cm high. The broadest one (“W”) is 139 cm wide, while the narrowest (“I”) features a width of 20,5 cm. Each of the eight letters is separated with a 20 cm gap. The total width of the word towering 21 meters over Szewczyka Sq. amounts to 8,26 m.
The restoration of the neon-sign is part of the KTW Center which is a concept developed by the investors of the new Railway Station and Galeria Katowicka – Neinver and PKP S.A. The Polish name (KTW) refers to the values the center promotes – Creativity, Tradition and Knowledge (“Kreatywność, Tradycja, Wiedza – KTW”).
Neinver has prepared a short movie presenting how the “Katowice” neon-signed was mounted: