The Beskid massifs are separated by the Wilkowice Gate (Brama Wilkowicka) connecting the Silesian Foothills (Pogórze Śląskie) with the Żywiec Basin (Kotlina Żywiecka).

[23] The biggest contributor to air pollution is the fact that many households, including in the inner city area, still use traditional heating systems based on burning coal.

[citation needed] The main contributors to air pollution are the use of outdated solid fuel sources in households, emissions of gases and particles from industrial plants, and traffic.

[26] The city's ecological situation has been gradually improving in recent years, thanks in part to the actions of municipal authorities, such as the implementation of the "Low-Emission Economy Plan" since 2010.

These are: Some peripheral areas are also included within obręby ewidencyjne of Bystra Śląska, Jaworze, Mazańcowice, Międzyrzecze Górne and Pisarzowice, which is a result of the incorporation of parts of these villages into Bielsko-Biała.

With the consent of Emperor Maximilian II, the Promnitz dynasty and their Schaffgotsch successors ruled the Duchy of Bielsko as a Bohemian state country; acquired by the Austrian chancellor Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz in 1743, and afterwards by Polish aristocrat Aleksander Józef Sułkowski in 1752, the ducal status was finally confirmed by Empress Maria Theresa in 1754.

In the second half of the 19th century, new tenements, villas of wealthy industrialists and public buildings in Revival and Art Nouveau styles began to spring up in the landscape of the city.

It connected the railway station with Zigeunerwald/Cygański Las, which in the meantime was transformed into a forest-park complex on the model of the Vienna Forest with many summer villas of Bielsko's factory owners built in its surroundings.

In the 1930s some ethnic German citizens, under the leadership of Rudolf Wiesner, formed an anti-Polish, anti-Jewish Jungdeutsche Partei, which de facto served as a foreign branch of the NSDAP.

Several widely known Holocaust survivors from Bielsko-Biała were Roman Frister, Gerda Weissmann Klein and Kitty Hart-Moxon, all of whom wrote accounts of their experiences during the war.

In post-war Poland, the city has remained an important centre of textile industry (second only to Łódź), alongside which new branches have developed: in 1946 the Gliding Institute was established and in 1948 the car engine plant WSM, on the basis of which the FSM Automobile Factory was founded in 1972.

The population has also increased due to the incorporation of surrounding communes: Kamienica and Mikuszowice (together with Olszówka [pl]) in 1969, Straconka in 1973, Stare Bielsko, Komorowice, Hałcnów and Wapienica in 1977.

The strikers forced the mayor of the city, the provincial governor, the commander of Milicja Obywatelska and the municipal and voivodeship secretaries of the Communist party to resign.

It is characterized by an oval urban layout with a regular street grid running out from the corners of the rectangular Market Square (Rynek), typical of towns founded in the 13th century under the Magdeburg Law.

This is where the greatest concentration of Revivalist and Art Nouveau buildings to which Bielsko-Biała owes the term "Little Vienna" is to be found: the own house of the architect Carl Korn (1883), Villa Sixt (1883), Jędrzej Śniadecki School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering (originally "the High Schools Building", 1883), the former Municipal Savings Bank (Komunalna Kasa Oszczędności, 1889, with an extension of 1901 by Max Fabiani and another extension of 1908–1910), Main Train Station (1890), Theatre (1890), Hotel President (1893), Main Post Office (1898), the former district office (1903, now one of the seats of the Regional Court), Villa Schneider (1904), Bielsko Industrial School (Bielska Szkoła Przemysłowa, 1912).

Other important architectural monuments from the turn of the 20th century in Biała are: the former Polish elementary school at Legionów Street (1898), Jakubecki House at 51 Stojałowskiego Street (1903, by Leopold Bauer), Frog House (Kamienica Pod Żabami, 1903, a prominent example of Art Nouveau), Pedagogical Library (1903, originally the villa of the architect Emanuel Rost Junior), the former hotel Under the Eagle (Hotel Pod Orłem, 1904) and the Economic High School (Zespół Szkół Ekonomicznych, 1910, originally the Polish Teachers' Seminary).

The largest concentration of early Modernist housing is in the area of Bohaterów Warszawy, Wilsona and Grota-Roweckiego Street, which has been built up since 1934 (before that, the castle gardens stretched here).

Significant examples of post-war architecture in the central districts include: Grunwaldzkie housing estate (1951–1957), the bus station (1972), Library of Beskids (1973), Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1984), "Klimczok" Cooperative Department Store (1988) and Art Exhibition Bureau (1989, now Galeria Bielska BWA).

By 2023, they have been created: Reksio, Bolek and Lolek, Baltazar Gąbka with the Wawel Dragon, Pampalini the Animal Hunter, and Don Pedro de Pommidore.

Another important religious monument are Roman Catholic churches of St. Barbara in Mikuszowice Krakowskie (wooden, built in 1690) and of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hałcnów (from the 18th century, it serves as a local pilgrimage site).

Polish Theatre (Teatr Polski) is a drama theater that was established after World War II as a successor to the German Stadttheater Bielitz, founded in 1890, and took over its historic building at 1 Maja Street.

In addition, numerous performances are staged at BCK cultural centre, and non-professional theater activities are conducted by the Bielsko-Biała Artistic Association Teatr Grodzki, founded in 1999.

[47] There are a number of other shopping facilities in the immediate vicinity, led by the "Klimczok" Cooperative Department Store owned by PSS Społem, which was built in 1988 and at the time was one of the largest in Poland.

However, the number of stores and service outlets located through it has declined markedly in recent years, which is often attributed to the negative influence of large shopping malls.

In addition, Bielsko-Biała has connections with large Polish cities (Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Warsaw, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk) by PKP Intercity express trains.

It is planned to extend S1 north along the existing dual carriageway DK1 from Bielsko-Biała to Tychy and Katowice, thus building an expressway connection of the city with the national motorway network of Poland.

Aleja Andersa and Bora-Komorowskiego Street constitute the Downtown Western Bypass (Śródmiejska Obwodnica Zachodnia), which connects the districts of Leszczyny, Kamienica, Aleksandrowice and Stare Bielsko to the junction with S52.

According to the June 2021 ranking, Bielsko-Biała had 826.7 registered vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, including 681.3 passenger cars, which means that it was the ninth most motorized city in Poland and the second (after Katowice) in the Silesian Voivodeship.

Some stops in Bielsko-Biała are also served by three lines of PKM Czechowice-Dziedzice, a municipal bus company from the neighbouring town, marked with numbers 5, VII and X (to distinguish from "7" and "10" of MZK).

Regional bus transport within the Bielsko County, as well as towards Kęty, Andrychów and Chybie, is operated by Komunikacja Beskidzka established in 2021 as a result of the transformation of the former PKS Bielsko-Biała.