{{Short description|Multi-family building commonly found in Silesia}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2025}} [[File:Ruda Slaska - Wirek - Targowa 7.jpg|thumb|A familok house in Ruda Śląska]] thumb|Red windowframes typical to familoks A '''familok''' is a type of multi-family house, originally designed for workers of industries and their families, mainly coal miners.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Stepien |first=Anna |title=Familok: A derelict relic of its former splendor {{!}} The Krakow Post |url=http://www.krakowpost.com/228/2007/07 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240620031035/http://www.krakowpost.com/228/2007/07 |archive-date=2024-06-20 |access-date=2026-02-28 |website=www.krakowpost.com |language=en-US}}</ref> Familoks were built at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, in the cities and towns of Upper Silesia.<ref name=":0" /> They are present in almost every sizeable Silesian city.<ref name=":0" />
Today, they are often run-down and in crime-ridden neighborhoods.<ref name=":0" /> They were often built in complexes, resulting in "familok districts" in cities today.<ref name=":0" /> Some districts even had their own church and communal yards, acting as "cities within cities".<ref name=":0" />
== Etymology == "Familok" is a Silesian way of pronouncing the original German name, ''Familien-Block'' (lit. family apartment house).{{Citation needed|date=February 2026}}
== History and culture == They were built during a time when mining and heavy industry were booming in Upper Silesia and homes were needed for workers arriving there from across Poland.<ref name=":0" />
Historically, many residents of familoks, arriving to take city industry and mining jobs, came from rural villages.<ref name=":0" /> As a result, many familoks grew vegetables and had sheds for keeping animals in their attached yards.<ref name=":0" /> Historical familok life has been described as "a cross between country and town".<ref name=":0" />
When many mines and foundries became unable to compete after the removal of communism, according to the ''Krakow Post'', mass layoffs occurred.<ref name=":0" /> Most of the workers left the familoks.<ref name=":0" /> They are now occupied by poor youth and pensioners, and are poor districts of cities.<ref name=":0" /> Some cities have begun to renovate them.<ref name=":0" />
The Silesian dialect of Polish is still commonly spoken in familok districts.<ref name=":0" />
== Architecture == Familoks usually have two or three stories, and are made of red brick with red or green window frames.<ref name=":0" /> The red window frames and window ledges are that color because extraction companies, which often built familoks for their workers, tended to use red paint in their mines.<ref name=":0" /> Every familok district is different, depending on the depending on exactly why and by which company it was built.<ref name=":0" />
== Protection == Many have been designated as historical monuments.<ref name=":0" />
In several towns, they are protected by conservationists and renovated due to their historical significance. Protected familoks include those in Nikiszowiec of Katowice, Kolonia Zgorzelec in Bytom, Kolonia Emma in Radlin, Ruda Śląska, cities situated in Silesia, and those situated in Karviná District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic in the historical region of Czech Silesia.{{Citation needed|date=February 2026}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons}} *[http://portal.katowice.pl/index3.php?id=fotografie/nikiszowiec Old familoks in Katowice-Nikiszowiec in black and white]
{{Silesia topics}}
Category:House types Category:History of Upper Silesia Category:Architecture in Poland Category:Architecture in Germany Category:House styles Category:Culture of Silesian Voivodeship
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