city, Śląskie województwo (province), southern Poland, on the Czarna Przemsza River just northeast of Katowice. It flourished when coal mining began there in 1796. During the 19th century Dąbrowa Górnicza served as a mining and metallurgical research centre and had the first Polish mining school (1889). It became a town in 1916.

Dąbrowa Górnicza is situated in the Upper Silesian industrial area and on the Katowice-Warsaw rail line. It is located over one of the thickest coal deposits in the world, measuring up to nearly 80 feet (24 metres) in thickness. Part of the coal seam is now a national geological reserve. It is the site of Huta Katowice, one of the largest iron- and steelworks in Poland. Pop. (2002) 132,236.