The Spire

The Spire was designed by engineer Stanisław Hempel. It was erected in 1948 for the Recovered Territories Exhibition, more than three decades after Centennial Hall opened. The steel monument was a post-war addition to the Exhibition Grounds, not part of the 1913 design.

The structure weighs 44 tonnes. Its three legs were intended to represent workers, peasants and the working intelligentsia. This was the language of the exhibition's propaganda: rebuilding a devastated Wrocław was presented as the collective achievement of those social groups.

The original design included aluminium mirrors at the summit, intended to reflect beams from floodlights. A storm damaged the installation before the official unveiling. The fragments left high above the ground had to be removed, which explains why the silhouette no longer has Hempel's planned mirrored crown.

With its original crown, the Spire stood 106 metres tall. Later work shortened its summit; a measurement taken during the 2016 restoration recorded a height of 90.30 metres. These figures do not represent different ways of measuring an unchanged object. They describe the structure before and after alterations.