Wrocław Water Tower

Brief information

The water tower in the Borek district was not only an engineering structure: from its first days, an electric elevator operated inside it, and employees connected with its maintenance lived on the lower floors. The building can therefore be read as a small vertical system: water, machinery, housing, and an observation deck were brought together in a single tower 62.5 meters high.

The tower served its direct purpose until the mid-1980s, then lost its water-supply function. After repairs in the late 1990s, it was turned into a restaurant complex, but its exterior preserved the structure’s former role: the tall brick tower with its tented roof still looks like an urban mechanism that has been given a new life.

What to notice first

It is worth comparing the engineering austerity of the tower with its decorative details. Clinker brick and the tented top create the solid silhouette of a water-supply structure, while the mixture of historicism, Art Nouveau, Neo-Romanesque, and Neo-Gothic turns the technical building into an almost representative urban landmark.

The sandstone reliefs with fantastical creatures are especially worth noting: this is not palace decoration, but ornament on a water tower, where a practical function received an unexpected artistic layer. The north-eastern part of the facade adds another clue to the building’s past: spring water flows there and a small fountain has been arranged, because the spring is located in the basement. The lower floors with the former staff apartments and the observation deck at a height of 42 meters show that the tower was simultaneously a workplace, housing, and a vantage point.