According to data from 2023, there were about 200 railway water towers in Poland during this period.
Railway water towers were built in the 19th and 20th centuries, and their main task was to supply water to steam locomotives.
Currently, most railway water towers are located in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (approximately 40), Silesian Voivodeship (approximately 30) and Greater Poland Voivodeship (approximately 25). A large number of them are also found in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lublin, Masovian and Pomeranian Voivodeships.
Some of them, after being transformed, now serve new functions, such as viewpoints, restaurants, residential, office and cultural facilities, while others, unfortunately forgotten, are decaying and being demolished.
The railway water tower in Chodzież was built in 1908 and was used to supply water to steam locomotives at the railway station.
This 115-year-old building, built in the neo-Gothic style, was decommissioned in 1980, and since 2008 it has been entered into the register of monuments.
It is a two-tank tower made of brick, covered with red tiles, on an elongated octagonal plan, 32 meters high, with tanks with a capacity of 1,200 m3.
Interestingly, the tower is open to visitors, and inside there is an exhibition devoted to the history of the railway in Chodzież.
In total, about 100 railway water towers were demolished, most of them in the 1960s and 1970s, when PKP launched a program to modernize the railway network. Water towers were then considered obsolete and unnecessary.
However, in recent years there has been an increase in interest in railway water towers. Many of them have been restored and now serve as museums, restaurants and art galleries.
The Office of Rail Transport (UTK) runs a program for the protection and revitalization of railway water towers. The program assumes that 60 towers will be restored by 2030.
