Millraces of Bielsko-Biała

Water relationship diagram · a model, not a map

Millraces of Bielsko-Biała

Two branches, a confluence, the section under the castle and the Büttner factory. Choose a relationship and a cut-off date: the line changes style where the sources stop confirming it.

Diagram of the relationships of the Bielsko-Biała millraces Seven numbered nodes. From 1 Kamienica and 2 Przedmieście Żywieckie, two branches lead to 3, the confluence. Further on, the watercourse runs through 4, the section under the castle, and 5, plac Smolki, to 6, the River Biała. Beside it stands 7, the Old Factory, and its connection with the water is marked as not established. The style of each line depends on the selected relationship and cut-off date; the text beside the diagram describes it.
The Atlas’s own relationship diagram (a model), not a plan or a map: the positions of the nodes and the shapes of the lines are conventional, and the direction of flow runs from 1 and 2 towards 6. An ochre ring around node 4 or 7 marks a dated event in the selected cut-off date. The legend of nodes and lines is below the diagram (on a narrow screen, below the controls).
  1. 1Kamienica, start of the artificial branch
  2. 2Przedmieście Żywieckie, start of the second millrace
  3. 3Confluence at Młyńska and Batorego
  4. 4Section under the castle (Zamkowa Street)
  5. 5Plac Smolki
  6. 6River Biała
  7. 7Old Factory (1 Maja / Sukiennicza); dashed outline = no works in the material for this cut-off date
  • dotted: described in the source, undated
  • dashed: dated change, extent unknown
  • gap with ‘?’: not established (this does not mean ‘zero’)
  • in this cut-off date the material gives a dated event (on the diagram: an ochre ring)
Water relationship
Cut-off date from the material

Cut-off dates are successive points in the material, not a time scale. The ← → arrow keys on a date button also change the cut-off date.

Without JavaScript the diagram shows the state: relationship ‘Covers’, cut-off date 1883. All four relationships and their dates are described directly in the section What the sources say.

Covers · 1883

3 Confluence4 Section under the castle

Dated change, extent unknown

Projekt BB dates the start of covering the watercourse to 1883; a raised pavement was built over the water. When it was finished and what stretch it covered is not stated, so the line is dashed.

◆ In this cut-off date the material gives a dated event.

Limits of what is known: it is not established when the covering was completed, what stretch it covered or how the collector ran after 1974. Today’s drain grilles and manholes are not evidence of a millrace.

Sources (to be checked): Projekt BB, Historical Museum, Local government magazine

All cut-off dates at once

Each relationship across seven successive cut-off dates. Dots and gaps predominate: the material describes the course of the water but hardly dates it. Selecting a cell also sets the diagram at the top.

The cut-off date matrix requires JavaScript. The same set of dates is described directly in the section What the sources say.

Four questions from the pavement

These are suggestions for observations to compare with archival plans, not a checked route. The numbers correspond to the nodes of the diagram.

  1. Nodes 1–3

    Młyńska / Batorego

    Does the layout of converging streets help you picture two branches reaching a single confluence? Compare the course of the streets with the description instead of looking for open water.

    Limit: a resemblance between the lines of the streets and of the former watercourse is not enough to reconstruct its position under the buildings. The elevations of the channel bed are not established.

  2. Node 4

    Zamkowa / Podzamcze

    When comparing photographs, check separately the level of the pavement, the width of the street and the building line. Each of these layers may have changed at a different time.

    Limit: the sources document the demolition and the loss of the raised pavement, not the details of the channel. The present pavement is not the former raised pavement.

  3. Node 7

    1 Maja / Sukiennicza

    Look at the rhythm of the windows and the size of the halls. How does a building for work differ from a neighbouring residential tenement house?

    Limit: a façade does not say where the factory got its water. The extent of the former ponds requires archival plans.

  4. Nodes 5–6

    Plac Smolki / Biała

    Observe how the ground of the square slopes down towards the Biała valley, as far as it is visible from public places.

    Limit: the form of the outfall under the buildings of the square is not established.

Safety: observe only from the pavement and public places. Do not step onto the carriageway or private land, and do not open manhole covers. The diagram does not show where you may go.

What the sources say and what the diagram does not settle

Relationships by cut-off date

Feeds branches 1 and 2 → confluence 3
The source describes an artificial branch from Kamienica (via Partyzantów and Młyńska) and a millrace from Żywieckie Przedmieście (along Partyzantów and Batorego), which joined at Młyńska and Batorego. None of the dates in the material (1868, 1883, 1888, 1974, 1983, 1996) concerns the branches, so in every cut-off date the line is dotted.
Covers confluence 3 → section under the castle 4
  • Before 1883 and in 1868: the state of the channel is an inference from the date the covering began, not a separate document.
  • 1883: covering begins, and a raised pavement is built over the water. Extent and end date: not stated.
  • 1888: no new data on the channel.
  • 1974: widening of Zamkowa Street, demolition of part of the Büttner buildings, loss of the raised pavement with the commercial gallery. Course of the water after this change: not established.
  • 1983 and later: the material does not describe the course of the water.
Drains under the castle 4 → plac Smolki 5 → Biała 6
The combined watercourse ran under the castle and through plac Smolki to the Biała, undated. The material does not link the widening of Zamkowa with plac Smolki. Form of the outfall under the buildings: not established.
Not established Old Factory 7 ↔ water
The dates concern buildings: 1868, purchase of the property by Karol Büttner (a house with workshops at 1 Maja 8, date of construction unknown); 1888, the factory building on Sukiennicza; 1974, demolition of part of the buildings; 1983, the museum in the former factory premises; 1996, opening of the first part of the exhibition. None of them describes a connection with the millrace. For what purpose the water was used in the works (power, rinsing or other) is not established.

How to read the diagram

  • No date is not a date. The unknown start of a branch is not placed on a timeline but marked with dots. That is why the cut-off dates are equal steps, not a scale of years.
  • A gap is not zero. ‘Not established’ means that the material provided does not describe the state, not that there was no water or that there is.
  • Today’s infrastructure does not prove a millrace. A drain grille, a manhole or a street name does not confirm a former channel without archival plans.
  • This is a model. The layout of the nodes is conventional and does not measure distances or the position of collectors.

What was removed in this version

  • The trace detector and the notebook kept in the browser’s memory: they could not settle anything, and local storage is not needed here. Its idea is replaced by the two sentences above.
  • The ‘suggestions’ tabs were replaced with a static list of questions.
  • The photograph of the Old Factory was replaced with a link, because an embedded image from the internet would not work offline.

Sources and verification status

The links and the assignment to facts were taken over from version V2 (based on V1). In building this version the pages listed were not opened or verified; they need checking before the content is regarded as confirmed.

  1. Projekt Bielsko-Biała: Bielskie młynówki [Bielsko millraces] Used for: the two branches, the confluence, the course under the castle and through plac Smolki to the Biała, the start of covering in 1883. To be checked.
  2. Muzeum Historyczne w Bielsku-Białej: Historia Muzeum Stara Fabryka [Historical Museum in Bielsko-Biała: history of the Old Factory Museum] Used for: Büttner’s property (1868), the factory building (1888), demolitions (1974), the museum (1983, 1996). To be checked.
  3. Magazyn samorządowy: Rodzinna zabawa i oglądanie [Local government magazine: family fun and sightseeing] Used for: the lost raised pavement with the commercial gallery. To be checked.
  4. Photograph of the Old Factory from the cathedral tower (Wikimedia Commons) Author according to the V2 description: Kamil Czaiński, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Link only, the image is not embedded; authorship and licence must be checked on the file’s page.
  5. Version V1 and version V2 of this topic (in Polish). The existence of these pages is checked by the integrator after deployment.