A reinforced concrete water tower from 1912 on the site of a former zinc works in Katowice-Szopienice, disused and entered in the heritage register in 1978.
The water tower of the Szopienice Non-Ferrous Metals Works stands on ul. ks. mjr. Karola Woźniaka in the Katowice district of Szopienice-Burowiec. Built in 1912, it is now disused and historic, and it can be viewed only from the outside.
It was built on the site of the Saeger Works, where a zinc blende roasting plant and a sulphuric acid factory for the neighbouring Uthemann Works operated. Together with a second tower it supplied the complex with industrial water, and a water intake on the Brynica was built for this purpose. It was probably designed by Emil and Georg Zillmann, the authors of other buildings of the zinc works. The Zinc Department of the Szopienice Non-Ferrous Metals Works ceased work on 30 June 1976, and the remains of the Saeger Works produced until 2002.
It is a 35-metre reinforced concrete structure on an octagonal plan with sides of about 5 metres, resembling a Gothic fortification. It has four storeys and a cellar, a timber roof truss and a broken eight-sided tented roof with red tiles. The upper part is supported by brackets, and on the west elevation there is a balcony with balustrades. In the upper part there was a round steel tank for 900 m³ of water. Inside, a spiral staircase above the ground floor, lamps and cables have survived.
The tower was entered in the heritage register on 30 July 1978 together with other buildings of the works, among them the checkpoint building, the gatehouse and the rolling mill. The structure is unfenced, has a holed roof, and the walls are cracked and covered in graffiti. The site of the works has passed to a new owner, and around it there are other remains of the plant, including the Rolling Mill, Zinc Metallurgy Museum.
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