Opportunities and Reasons for the Protection of the Steel and Mining Plant Bolesław, Małopolskie Voivodeship, Poland on the Background of Law Possibilities

Abstract The industrial heritage of the 1960s and 1970s includes post-mining buildings, most of them abandoned and neglected. The question is whether they should be protected? Is protection possible under the law in force? Polish law does not regulate these issues. This work shall use the Zakłady Górniczo Hutnicze Bolesław (Steel and Mining Plant) based in Bolesław, a city in Lesser Poland, as an example. Spatial arrangements of two mines, both of which belong to the ZGH Bolesław, were subject to analysis, together with their constructional aspects, as well as the present condition of the shaft towers and the head-pit buildings. The conclusions concern the possibility of utilizing the statutory and the non-statutory methods of assessing post-mining structures as a form of tools that are used to protect them and as a form of a recommendation for providing their comprehensive historical, cultural, and social valuation. Moreover, the research was also based on archival materials provided by ZGH Bolesław as well as in-situ studies.