It has retained its legible form, original construction and architectural detailing. It presents historical values and is an important element of the industrial landscape of Gniezno. 

History of the structure

The establishment of the first railway depot in Gniezno was connected with the opening of a railroad line from Gniezno to Oleśnica near Wrocław. Construction of the small, 4-stand fan-shaped hall began in 1875, probably according to Wilhelm Grapow’s design. In 1888 a fan-shaped hall with 12 stands was added to it. The result was a large hall with 16 stands 14.7 m long equipped with inspection pits. Workshops with a forge, a steam boiler room and a machine tool hall were added to the railway depot from the west. The next extension of the railway depot, carried out in the years 1894-95, was made according to a design prepared in 1894 by Bennon Dopke. The existing building was enlarged on the west side with a new, higher fan-shaped hall, containing 12 stands, 2 meters longer than the neighbouring ones, for modern coupled steam locomotives ( 15.5 m long). At that time, the hall had 28 stands with a turntable with a diameter of 16.2 m. Due to the increase in size of the steam locomotives in 1915, the steam locomotive stands located in the hall from 1888 were extended by 4.5 m. In 1922, the workshop wing of the steam locomotive depot was extended by several dozen meters. In September 1939, during German air raids on Gniezno, the railway depot and workshops were bombed. The ruined 4 stands from 1875 and 1 stand from 1888 of the railway depot were demolished, while the remainder of the building was reconstructed a year later. Today, 11 stands from 1888 and 12 stands from the 1890s have remained in the railway depot. The steam locomotive depot has been closed since the 1990s.

Description of the structure

The fan-fan-shaped railway depot is located in the southern part of the Gniezno railroad station and is one of the main elements of the complex of technical and repair facilities for servicing steam locomotives. The one-storey fan-shaped hall was designed on the plan of a circle cut-out and was built in several stages. From the first oldest part of the hall, dating back to 1875, 4 stands have remained, but its layout is hardly legible due to the reconstruction carried out after the bombing of 1939. The part of the hall added in 1888, with 12 stands, preserved the fan-shaped layout, which was enlarged in the years 1894-95 with 12 additional stands. Currently there are 23 stands in the railway depot. The hall has retained the plan, shape, construction, and materials from the three phased of its construction. The fragmented body of the building shows the distinctness of the individual parts of the railway depot. The next stages of expansion are visible. The largest is a hall from 1888, 8.5 m high with a workshop wing adjacent to it on the south side. The newer part of the hall, 11.0 m high on the west side with a large ridge skylight, dominates over the whole. The building is made of solid ceramic bricks. Gabled roofs over the railway depot and the workshop wing, covered with tar paper. In the older part, the wooden roof structure was based on radially arranged steel riveted girders of the Polonceau system.

The architecture of the hall is maintained in the historicism style with decorations characteristic for railroad architecture from the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The elevation of the hall from the 1880s, faced with brick with lesene and a cube-shaped crowning frieze, refers to the patterns of industrial architecture of the 19th century.  Similar architectural details were given to the newer western part of the hall and the workshop wing. Window and door openings in the entrance gates are segmentally vaulted.

Visitor access. The railway depot is at the disposal of the Gniezno Association of Railway Enthusiasts, which organizes tours of the facility during the “Days of Steam”.

Compiled by: Radomiła Banach, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 27.10.2017

Bibliography

• Zabytkowa stacja kolejowa Gniezno, Miron Urbaniak, Łódź 2009
• Krajobraz z koleją Drogi żelazne Wielkopolski, Grażyna M. Balińska, Jerzy A. Baliński, Dorota Balińska, Wrocław 2011, pp. 196-7, 226.