Technical monuments

Gliwice Radio Tower

111.1 m tall, built of larch beams and joined with more than 16,000 brass screws — not a single steel nail — the Gliwice radio tower, assembled in just five months in 1935, remains the tallest all-wood structure in Europe. What secured its place in history, however, was the evening of 31 August 1939.

The provocation that started the war

That evening the Germans staged an attack on the station grounds — the Gleiwitz incident served as the pretext for invading Poland the following day. The station broadcast until 22 January 1945, and between 1950 and 1956 it was used to jam foreign broadcasters, including Radio Free Europe.

A ladder with 365 rungs

The structure, with a square base of 20 × 20 m, rests on four concrete foundations weighing 87 tonnes each. A ladder with 365 rungs runs up its inside, and the platform at the top measures just 2.13 × 2.13 m.

Museum and park

Inside the station building, a museum displays equipment from 1934 by Lorenz, Telefunken and Siemens & Halske. The 12-kilowatt Lorenz transmitter was taken to the Museum of Technology in Warsaw in 1963 and returned home in 2013. The whole 3-hectare site, designated a Monument of History, is now a public park on Tarnogórska Street — check visiting conditions on the Museum in Gliwice website.