The history of the Water Tower in Szent István square

Tendering & implementation

In 1903 the independent royal town of Szeged put out the construction works for a water tower with the capacity of 1000 m3 to tender. The successful tender for the construction of the tower was Szilárd Zielinski’s plan.

Zielinski based both the structure of the truss and the storage tank on reinforced concrete technology, which was well ahead of his time as no operating water tower existed at that time in Hungary with this technology.

The water tower and the storage tank were the determining elements of the just forming systems for “permanent water companies”. The marvellous ornament was constructed in secessionist style according to the plans of Flóris Korb, whilst the execution works praise the activity done by the Henrik Freund and Sons Company.

The construction became ready in November or December of 1904. The works took only one and a half years which, concerning the conditions of the work at that time, is outstanding. Reinforced technology was at its initial phase without sliding shuttering technology, cement mixer, tower

crane or pre-fabricated support structure. Builders could only rely on scaffolding of the whole tower and pure manual manpower.

Introduction of the complete water tower

As for the structure, we can identify two major parts. One of them is the storage tank with the capacity of 1000 m3, which is based with its reinforced concrete plate on the beaming of the tower balancing the bearing forces of the hydraulic pressure on its own.

The other main element is the supporting structure of beams and supporting-pillars operating as a symmetrical structure around its axis. The complexity of the structure can be made perceptible by the 540 rods and 240 intersections. There is a reinforced concrete staircase running through the whole length of the tower. Under the storage tank they are formed between the area of the inner and outer pillars, while there is an inner central spiral stair leading all the way up the upper section to the view tower occupying the space between four main pillars. The speciality of this construction is that its stairs run through the middle of the storage tank itself. The tower is 46 meters high from the ground to the uppermost view tower.

The reinforced concrete structure of the flagpole erects to an extra 9 meter height. The general feature of the tower is that all her component is made of reinforced concrete elements: the foundation, the supporting structure, the storage tank, the spiral stairs, the flagpole, even the entrance door, as well as the door handle. The water tower of Szent István Square is one of the first water towers of the technology. It is such an amazing construction that it played a model role for decades. Now, she is the oldest still operating structure of her kind in Hungary.

Reconstruction works

The tower has been operating since its construction back in 1904. The passing more than 100 years left its trace on her causing severe damage on the whole supporting structure and the storage tank itself.

The plans for the reconstructions were prepared by Function and Structure Engineering Office featuring dr. Ernő Körmöczi and András Szolga. The concrete work was done by “Tower Consortium” formed by SADE Hungary and Techno Consult Ltd. The actual works took place from August of 2005 to the end of May 2006.

In the water tower, in addition to the beauty of the wonderful engineering work, you can see permanent and other temporary exhibitions related to the production of soda-water as well as the history of physics. On the observation deck you can enjoy the panorama of Szeged.