A reinforced-concrete winding tower of the Prezydent shaft in Chorzów from 1932-1933, 42.5 m high, with a viewing platform on the Industrial Monuments Route.
The Prezydent Shaft in Chorzów is a reinforced-concrete winding tower 42.5 m high, the only well-preserved reminder of mining in this city. It was built in the early 1930s for a hard coal mine, and today it is a stop on the Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship and a viewing tower. It stands in the middle of a recreation area, next to the former Sztygarka mine complex.
The shaft, first named Jacek III and then Prezydent Mościcki, was built in 1929-1933 in the eastern field of the Król mine.
It reached a depth of 234 m and gave access to coal seams 501, 504 and 507. During sinking, old workings were encountered, including a void 6 m high in seam 507, left after coal was extracted in 1875; it was filled with liquid backfill. It was the largest investment of the Król mine in the interwar period. The shaft and the whole mine bore the name Prezydent Mościcki from 15 February 1937, in honour of President Ignacy Mościcki. During the war the mine was called Königsgrube Ostfeld, and from 1945 simply Prezydent.
The tower was designed in 1931 by the Katowice engineer Ryszard Heileman and built in 1933; the heritage register gives the year 1932.
It has the traditional shape of a single-strut tower, but the structure is reinforced concrete, which sets it apart from other winding towers. It is in the style of functionalism. Two parallel rope sheaves with a diameter of 5.5 m are mounted on the head. Next to the tower stood a winding engine house and a coal screening plant; after the mine was closed they were devastated and demolished in 1996. At the time of construction the tower was one of the most modern structures of its kind in Europe.
Extraction in the Prezydent area officially ended on 1 July 1995, and the tower went out of use in the 1990s.
In 2008 the city of Chorzów bought the tower and it was entered in the heritage register (no. A/228/08). It was renovated in 2009, the surrounding area was tidied up and the structure was illuminated. In 2010 the tower, together with the neighbouring Sztygarka complex, joined the Industrial Monuments Route. The recreation area around it covers 3.65 ha. In 2014 the tower was opened to visitors as a viewpoint; the platform is at a height of 34 m and is reached by 201 steps.
Around the shaft lie several other places in Chorzów and Katowice.
About 400 m from the tower is the Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park.
About 800 m from the tower is the Teatr Rozrywki.
Further on, about 2 km away, lies the Silesian Park.
At a similar distance is the Silesian Planetarium.
In Katowice, about 5.4 km further on, stands the Spodek.
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