Iconotropy of images of Saint Barbara from the Upper Silesian coal mines: the case of “Graf Franz” / “Wawel” mine
Iconotropy of images of Saint Barbara from the Upper Silesian coal mines: the case of “Graf Franz” / “Wawel” mine

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the formal changes to the image of Saint Barbara from the “Graf Franz” / “Wawel” coal mine and the accompany¬ing ontological changes to the object in the light of politically and eco¬nomically motivated transformations. The images of Saint Barbara placed in the pit head buildings of the coal mines in Upper Silesia particularly intensively at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were objects of religious cult, and were mostly created by the professional artists. As objects of miners’ piety, based on devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, they represented the idea of an art object unified with theology. During the communist rule in Poland, the statue of Saint Bar¬bara was removed from the pit head building and hidden by the miners, and given the status of a symbol of resistance against the state authorities. The returning of the image to the pithead building in 1980 and repainting it with technical paint made it a religious and political symbol, while also serving as an apotropaic object. After the liquidation of the “Wawel” mine, the sculpture, covered with a realistic polychrome, serves as a devotional object in the Church of Saint Pius X in Ruda Śląska.

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