Katowice is the cultural centre of the entire Silesian agglomeration inhabited by over two million people and one of the leading cultural spots in Poland. Most importantly, it is a host city to some of the biggest theatrical and stage events. This also includes hosting gatherings and exhibitions well as film and musical events. Annual musical festivals such as the Rawa Blues, the Tauron New Music Festival, the Silesian Jazz Festival, the Mayday Festival and other concerts, which attract yearly hundreds of thousands of tourists from the entire country. Katowice also temporarily hosts the OFF Festival, the most important alternative event in Poland.

• Silesian Theatre, named after the Polish writer and painter Stanisław Wyspiański, is the largest theatre in Silesia. It is located exactly in the central part of the market square facing westward. The complex was originally built as a German theatre between 1905 and 1907 by architect Carl Moritz.
• Silesian Museum, founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. In the Polish interbellum (1918-1939), the Silesian Museum was one of the prime institutions within the Second Polish Republic.
• Silesian Philharmonic, originally established in 1945, its most notable members included Witold Małcużyński, Igor Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter and Adam Taubitz.
• Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, created in 1935 and led by Grzegorz Fitelberg until the outbreak of World War II, has recorded nearly 200 compact discs for many domestic and foreign labels.
• Off Festival, a music festival, which also supports a variety of independent arts and cultural events such as exhibitions, workshops and film screenings.
• Rawa Blues Festival, the world's largest indoor blues festival named after the Rawa River, which flows through Katowice.

Katowice did not originate as a medieval town. The city centre was beginning to form in the mid-19th century when it was part of the Kingdom of Prussia and had an ethnic German majority. The buildings of the time are decorated in an eclectic style (mostly Renaissance with elements of Baroque) and elements of Art Nouveau style (Polish: secesja). By the end of the nineteenth century the centre was being referred to as a "little Paris" due to the presence of Parisian-styled tenement houses. Examples of Modernism, especially International Style and Bauhaus inspired architecture, still coexist with modern office buildings in central Katowice. Between the 1950s and 1980s many socialist apartment blocks were constructed around the inner suburbs. Notable examples from that period include a multipurpose arena complex called Spodek and parts of Koszutka district.

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