The post-mining areas due to the difficulties of those, often associated with expensive activities, usually take the form of wasteland. In contrast, unavailable, unused and alien areas the mentality of residents, are identified with empty space. The purpose of the authors was to answer the question: Are post-mining areas becoming empty spaces? Her research basis was changes in the functioning of post-mining areas and empty spaces in Katowice – a city with a long-standing mining tradition. Using GIS tools, a spatial analysis was carried out to determine the empty spaces functions and the perceiving of the post-mining areas by residents or users of a given district nearby.