Water Tower in Yekaterinburg, Water tower in Historical Square, Yekaterinburg, Russia
The Water Tower in Historical Square is a former railway water tower built in the early 1890s. Its lower hexagonal section is faced with granite blocks, while the upper part is made of wooden logs; a lantern tops the structure, and an external spiral metal staircase leads to the upper floor.
The tower was built in the early 1890s for the railway workshops, whose first tracks in Yekaterinburg date from 1878; the workshops' plan gave it a firefighting role. In 1946 engineer Boris Denisov had the metal tank cut down and its bottom floored over, and from March 1947 the tower served as a two-apartment dwelling until the second half of the 1960s. In 1995 it passed to the Museum of History of Yekaterinburg, and a 2017–2018 reconstruction preceded the museum display opened on the upper floor on 13 November 2018.
Since 1995 the tower has belonged to the Yekaterinburg History Museum. Blacksmith Alexander Lysyakov created the "Metal Shop" exhibition of household and artistic metalwork, and the first keeper was artist Viktor Makhotin, followed in 2002 by photographer Ivan Ryzhkov. Today the tower hosts tours, acoustic concerts and poetry evenings.
The tower is accessible year-round from the outside and sits centrally on Historical Square, easily reached on foot. Information panels at the site provide details about its construction and use over time.
The main exhibit is a riveted metal tank from the 19th century, first opened to view since 1947. In 1946 engineer Boris Denisov had the tank walls cut down and the second floor converted into a flat, where his family moved in March 1947.
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