Original subtitles

[Narrator] These are the engineering wonders of Poland,

their secrets revealed in a way never seen before.

This forward-thinking European nation

is fueled by rapid economic growth

and a drive to connect the nation like never before.

Engineers are reshaping its cities and landscapes

with pioneering infrastructure projects

and cutting-edge machines built for the modern world.

In this series, we reveal the secrets of the engineering

that built Europe's great nations,

the wonders that shape its cities, landscapes and history.

We reveal the astonishing innovations

and surprising connections

that helped to forge this mighty continent.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Poland sits in Central Europe, on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

It has flat, forested plains to the north

and mineral-rich mountains to the south.

For much of modern history,

Poland was controlled by invaders,

including Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

Today, engineering innovation is forging a new chapter

for the country.

It has one of the fastest-growing economies

in Europe, a burgeoning infrastructure,

and a passion to preserve its engineering legacy

for future generations.

Across Poland, the country's booming economy

has triggered a new wave

of groundbreaking infrastructure projects.

♪ ♪

In the Middle Ages, Gdansk was part of a powerful league

of merchant towns that tightly controlled the shipping

of timber and grain across the Baltic.

The city's medieval port crane is the largest of its kind

surviving in Europe.

And in the 19th century,

a Polish engineer was the co-inventor of arc welding,

which uses electricity to melt and join metal.

Today in Gdansk, a modern engineering marvel

aims to supercharge shipping in Poland.

♪ ♪

This is the Baltic Hub container terminal

in the port of Gdansk.

It's the largest container port on the Baltic Sea.

It covers an area the size of 120 football fields

and handles around 2.2 million containers a year.

And it's about to get even bigger.

Right next to the existing docks,

a team of daring Polish engineers is raising

a brand new 470 million-euro terminal from the seafloor.

♪ ♪

The team uses specialized dredgers

to remove around 7 million cubic meters of sand

and soft sediment to form a deep water harbor.

Then they form a box from hundreds of steel piles,

which they anchor to the seabed.

Finally, they fill the box with sand

and cover it with concrete.

This creates a 36-hectare artificial island

with a 717-meter-long quay

and a water depth of 17.5 meters.

When complete, this new terminal will be able to handle

the largest cargo vessels in the world.

[horn blows]

One of the project's biggest engineering milestones

is to install the giant cranes.

These will load and offload the container ships.

Four of the 96-meter-tall cranes are already in place.

Now, the last three have been slowly making their way

from a manufacturing yard in China to the new dock.

The journey takes an incredible two months

across multiple oceans, so the enormous load

must be firmly fastened with steel wires and chains.

♪ ♪

[Dominik Wróblewski] The ship just arrived.

We are, since this morning,

start to preparing the offloading procedure.

[Narrator] Dominik Wróblewski is one of the lead engineers

coordinating the terminal expansion.

[Dominik] So in the principle, the offloading of the cranes

from the vessel, it looks very simple.

But very simple doesn't mean it's easy,

because we are dealing with very heavy equipment.

The weight of the crane is 2,000 ton.

[Narrator] The crew first installs

specially designed ramps with tracks.

They then use steel ropes and winches to slowly pull

each crane off the ship, one at a time.

[Dominik] The critical is when the crane is half on the vessel

and half on the quay.

[Narrator] As the crane's weight gradually shifts off the ship,

the crew must pump ballast water into tanks

inside the hull to keep the vessel stable.

Waves are now a critical concern.

[Dominik] If we have a swell, the vessel starts moving,

then the crane, if it's between the vessel and the quay,

can start moving, and can eventually,

in the worst case, collapse.

So that's why the operation needs to be

on a very stable sea state.

[Narrator] Finally, the rear of the crane

is safely off the ship.

[Dominik] So far, we are going quite well.

The crane is fully at the quay,

preparing to be pulled out into the permanent rail.

[Narrator] Once it's operational,

the crane will be able to move up and down the quay

on rails like a train.

Lifting the crane into its new home

is no simple matter, though.

The team must first remove the supports used for unloading

and carefully lower the crane onto its own wheels.

Then they use two trucks to slowly pull the steel giant

along the quay.

Both trucks need to maintain exactly the same speed

to keep the crane perfectly stable,

until it finally touches down on its rail.

[clang]

Over the next few days, the team offload and install

the remaining two mega cranes.

Gdansk's new terminal is ready to start operating.

♪ ♪

In Katowice, the Spodek Stadium,

constructed in the 1970s, is an icon of post-war architecture.

In the 1950s, in Warsaw, the Palace of Culture and Science

was built to honor the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

For 67 years, it remained the tallest structure in Poland,

and a reminder of the country's communist past.

Now in Warsaw, a record-breaking new building

dwarfs Stalin's old palace.

♪ ♪

This is Varso Tower, Poland's tallest building

and the tallest skyscraper in the European Union.

This 53-story colossus rises 310 meters into the sky,

a striking symbol of both Warsaw and Poland's

modern economic growth.

But building something this big

in the dense heart of the capital

was a serious engineering challenge.

[Maciej Olczyk] We are located in the city center,

so it's obviously very busy place.

And for that purpose, we had to plan very thoroughly

the logistics of this project.

[Narrator] The groundwork for the project begins in 2016

with a vast foundation pit.

The tower's central location means it's surrounded

by buildings and busy roads.

With such a tight footprint, space on site is at a premium.

And the team needs to work fast.

Prefabrication is the key to speed.

The team builds the backbone of the tower

using concrete pouring technology.

Then they attach prefabricated glass and steel panels

to build a gleaming facade.

They push Varso Tower up to 230 meters in just three years,

making it the second tallest building in Poland.

The new skyscraper is now just seven meters shy

of its neighbor, the Palace of Culture and Science.

But the team isn't finished yet.

[Narrator] In this workshop in Silesia province,

over 300 kilometers away from Warsaw,

engineers construct an 80-meter-long spire

to sit on top of Varso Tower

and elevate it to a record-breaking height.

They make it in segments, each weighing roughly four tons.

A fleet of articulated lorries transports each piece

through the city at night, when the roads are quiet.

At daybreak, the crew uses a specially designed crane

anchored to the roof.

It carefully lifts each piece

up to the very top of the building

where daredevil engineers are ready and waiting

to guide each section into place by hand.

[Maciej] The most challenging moment in installation

of the spire was the last pieces on the very top of the spike,

because we had to find the proper time there was no wind,

because otherwise we could have collision

between the crane and the steel structure.

[Narrator] With the final piece secured,

Varso Tower reaches its full height,

soaring above the Warsaw skyline.

Today, the tower is the pride of the city,

and twice a year, a team of daring cleaners

ensures it stays at its gleaming best,

a potent symbol of modern Poland

and its status as a thriving European nation.

♪ ♪

A surge of large-scale infrastructure projects

across Poland is transforming how the country is connected.

In Gdansk, the Vistula Spit has a new canal,

creating fresh shipping routes

that run into the heart of the country.

In Warsaw, engineers are doubling the size

of the capital's metro.

Now, engineers are gearing up for their biggest venture yet.

An ambitious new rail project seeks to connect Warsaw

to the rest of the country,

including the historic city of Lódz.

♪ ♪

Set to be completed in 2035, the CPK transport hub

will see hundreds of kilometers

of new high-speed rail lines built.

They will link existing networks and converge

on a new state-of-the-art airport

being built between Lódz and Warsaw.

It is here, in Lódz,

that this ambitious engineering project begins.

[Agnieszka Stefanska-Krasowska] We are making the future,

we are not history.

We are building the future for the next generation.

[Narrator] Lódz was a textile powerhouse

during the Industrial Revolution.

It is now one of the country's fastest-growing cities.

And with CPK, a high-speed railway tunnel

will soon run up to 34 meters beneath its center.

The longest tunnel of its kind in Poland.

Before tunnel excavations begin,

engineers need to safeguard

Lódz's precious historical buildings from collapse.

♪ ♪

This is Lódz House of Culture,

a listed historic building from the 1930s.

It sits right next to a busy train station

and the new high-speed rail tunnel

will run directly beneath it.

Without stronger foundations, the building could collapse

during the tunnel's construction.

To save the House of Culture, engineers are first installing

temporary rods called micropiles,

which act like stilts,

supporting the building so the tunnelling can start.

Geotechnical specialist Wojciech Smolen

is overseeing the works.

[Wojciech Smolen] During my experience, during my career,

I have already worked many years with those technologies,

but I haven't used it on a scale like here.

[Narrator] 360 carefully positioned micropiles

will reach up to 26.5 meters deep

under the House of Culture.

They will support the structure's weight

while the team first casts a stronger new foundation

for the building.

They can then safely excavate the tunnel chamber,

removing the micropiles as they go,

to make way for the train line that will run through it

in seven years' time.

♪ ♪

[Wojciech] We are checking if the micropile,

if the machine is for sure vertically,

because it's very important.

The micropile is designed to bear load

only in its vertical position.

When it's inclined, the forces working on the micropile

are different.

[Narrator] Space inside the building is tight.

So workers must split each 12-meter steel pile

into six two-meter segments,

so they can squeeze them below the ceiling.

The team then screws the sections together

as they drill down, piece by piece.

[Wojciech] The most challenging thing about this work

is that we are working in a very limited space with big machines.

[Narrator] It takes all day to fit 18 pile segments

into the foundations of the House of Culture.

[Wojciech] Today we finished three piles, micropiles,

so it's a very good result for a shift.

[Narrator] With the cultural center secure,

Lódz and the rest of Poland can look forward to a future

of high-speed rail for all.

Currently, it takes one and a half hours

to drive from Lódz to Warsaw.

The new rail line will cut this time to just 40 minutes.

It will also slash journeys to Poznan and Wroclaw,

connecting these vital business hubs.

The CPK project is set to cost around 30.8 billion euros

and take 10 years to complete.

But this investment could revolutionize

the nation's connectivity.

♪ ♪

Polish engineers not only innovate in infrastructure,

but are masters of architecture.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Poland's climate swings between scorching summers

and freezing winters.

Engineers here must build for these extremes.

High in the Karkonosze Mountains,

the saucer-like Sniezka Observatory

is designed to endure fierce winds.

On the rocky outcrop of Niedzica-Zamek,

medieval builders engineered their castle's

thick stone walls to insulate in winter

and keep cool in summer.

In Zakopane, one extraordinary

feat of engineering

rises from the snow each year.

This is the remarkable construction site

of Snowlandia, a vast and extraordinary snow maze.

Every winter for the last decade,

engineers have built this frozen wonder from scratch

to thrill visitors

to one of Poland's most popular ski resorts.

[Narrator] It takes thousands of tons of snow

to construct the up to three-meter-high walls.

When complete, its twisting corridors

stretch up to a kilometer long.

This marvel of snow architecture

is the brainchild of Zakopane local Jaroslaw Sitarz.

[speaking Polish]

[Jaroslaw Sitarz, translated] I'm associated with winter,

with snow, basically from birth, from a child,

because my dad built the first ski lift here in the '70s.

[Narrator] The team designs the maze in a new pattern each year

and uses special molds to shape its walls.

[Jaroslaw] This year we have 119 passages

and 85 transverse walls.

There are thousands of tons of snow to dump, to form.

It's not easy either, because there's a lot of time pressure.

[Narrator] Each winter is a waiting game

for the temperature to dip below zero degrees,

the perfect conditions for maze-making.

This is when Jaroslaw's team springs into action,

deploying a fleet of four heavy-duty snow machines.

First, they create huge piles of snow.

Then they use high-powered snow blowers

to fill the custom-made molds,

shaping the labyrinth's walls one section at a time.

Their most powerful machine spits out

1,300 tons of snow per hour.

♪ ♪

Each wall requires the equivalent

of around nine truckloads of snow.

Workers climb on top of the walls as they fill them

to distribute the snow evenly and compact it with shovels.

This forces the snow crystals closer together,

squeezing out any air trapped between them,

increasing the density and making the snow walls stronger.

[Jaroslaw] Well, we try every year to improve, modify,

build more and more solidly,

so that it can last as long as possible.

[Narrator] Once the long vertical walls are solid...

♪ ♪

...the team carve the intersections through the maze.

They use powerful chainsaws, with blades over a meter long,

to slice the ice away, block by block.

♪ ♪

Beside the main labyrinth, the team is also building

a series of igloos where adventurers

can explore a winter wonderland.

♪ ♪

They hold 11 chambers with intricately carved sculptures.

Each sculpture can take up to two days

to carve from the snow and ice.

At the maze construction site, the team builds the dead ends,

positioned to catch out players as they turn the corners.

Five days later, the maze transforms

into a dense labyrinth of twists and turns,

and excited families queue up to try their luck

at Poland's famous puzzle.

[Jaroslaw] My pride is huge, due to the fact

that guests can visit us not only from Poland,

but actually from all over the world.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] The south of the country was the center

of the late medieval Kingdom of Poland,

and is now home to some of its

most historical architectural wonders.

St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków,

with its distinctive asymmetrical towers,

is filled with detailed Gothic designs.

The thousand-year-old Wawel Castle complex

was the seat of the king.

It was built over many centuries

and features an eclectic mix of architectural styles.

Just outside Kraków,

a structure of extraordinary scale lies hidden from view.

[Narrator] This is the town of Wieliczka,

14 kilometers from Kraków.

On the surface, nothing appears out of the ordinary.

But hidden deep beneath the streets

lies an engineering wonder,

one of the world's largest historical salt mines.

[crunch]

For more than 700 years, miners excavated

around 9 million cubic meters of earth,

rock, and salt, creating a secret subterranean city.

Nine layers of countless shafts, tunnels, and chambers

spread 245 kilometers under the ground,

reaching 327 meters deep.

♪ ♪

Today, Wieliczka's salt mine is no longer active,

but its immense scale attracts over a million visitors a year.

They come to explore its winding corridors

and take in hidden structures carved more recently

within the mine's salt caverns.

The extraordinary wonders include a chapel

where the altar, statues, and even the chandeliers

are carved entirely from salt.

To stabilize these vast caverns,

nine levels below the ground,

miners built meticulously engineered

wooden support towers.

Remarkably, many have remained intact for centuries.

But with its corridors and chambers

under constant pressure from the surrounding rock,

ongoing engineering is essential

to safeguard the caverns from collapse.

♪ ♪

Kamil Broniowski leads the morning shift...

[bell rings]

...in tunnels strictly off-limits to visitors.

Around 400 miners like Kamil

still work around the clock here,

maintaining the vast network of tunnels and chambers.

Because the town above is at risk if the caverns cave in.

♪ ♪

[Kamil Broniowski] The pressure wants to crush the chambers,

crush the tunnels.

Eventually, the mine will collapse.

[Narrator] This tunnel on the fourth level

shows critical signs of decay and needs urgent support.

[Kamil] This rock is quite loose.

You can see a lot of it is falling off the wall

as I just gently scratch it.

[drilling]

[Narrator] Kamil's team use pneumatic drills

to clear away the weathered rock.

♪ ♪

Now they can fit the supports.

[bell rings]

The mine is a World Heritage Site,

so engineers must use the materials and techniques

of their forefathers, hundreds of years ago,

to preserve this secret wonder.

They take logs harvested from local forests

and transport them down the narrow vertical shaft.

Old locomotive lines help propel them

through the winding underground network

to the construction site where they shape them to size

and slot the supports into place.

They install a support beam every one meter

and slot wooden planks in between

to secure the walls and ceiling.

The engineering work here is so vital,

it carries on 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

♪ ♪

It takes the team a day to shore up just a single meter

of the mine's 245 kilometers of tunnels.

[Kamil] The mine is very special to the local community.

It's a very important monument of history of our country.

Working here is a very large privilege,

because you are part of this history.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] Over 30% of Poland is forested.

This shaped a legacy of using timber to build

astonishing wooden structures across the country.

In Kwiatoniu,

the 17th century-old Orthodox Church

has layered spires and intricate carpentry.

And in Swidnica, the Holy Trinity Church of Peace

is the largest wooden Baroque temple in Europe.

Hidden in the quiet town of Gliwice

stands a record-breaking wonder of wooden engineering.

[Narrator] This is Gliwice Radio Tower.

Soaring 111 meters high,

it's Europe's tallest wooden structure.

The tower is made from Siberian larch,

known for its exceptional strength and durability.

Wood beams are laid in a lattice pattern

and secured with thousands of brass bolts.

This Silesian Eiffel Tower was constructed in the mid 1930s.

It is one of the only surviving

wooden radio transmitters from its era.

And its incredible height means it's still in use today

as a mobile phone antenna.

♪ ♪

It's thanks to Polish conservation specialists

that the tower still stands today.

Twice a year, they make the 111-meter climb

to inspect its condition and make critical repairs.

[Narrator] Andrzej Wnuk is in charge of the daring operation.

[Andrzej Wnuk, translated] This tower is a symbol of Gliwice.

It's certainly very gratifying that we managed to maintain it

for so long, and we continue to keep it in good condition.

[Narrator] The team attaches their safety equipment

and then begins the long ascent to the top.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] The exhausting climb takes 30 minutes.

[Narrator] The conservators are on a mission

to remove the tower's medium-wave antenna,

which is now out of use.

The antenna is 100 meters long

and made from metal with a rubber casing.

[Narrator] The team cut it into manageable sections

to safely lower it to the floor.

By removing the antenna,

they take unnecessary weight off the wooden structure.

♪ ♪

In the early 1930s,

radio towers were often built from wood.

Wood was plentiful and cheap,

and the enormous heights required

were most easily achieved with a wooden lattice design.

♪ ♪

The downside, though, was the risk of fire.

♪ ♪

As the team continues to cut down the old antenna,

experienced climber Aleksandra Pietrakowska

ascends to the tower's peak.

[Aleksandra Pietrakowska, translated] I think what drives me the most in this job

is adrenaline, challenges, taking the next step,

proving to yourself that a person can cope,

that you just need to calmly approach it.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] A bolt has broken on the tower's lightning rod,

so Aleksandra must replace it

with a historically accurate replica.

Keeping the lightning rod securely in place

is crucial to prevent the wooden skyscraper

from catching fire if it gets struck by lightning.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Narrator] It's a great team effort.

Aleksandra and her colleagues successfully replace

the new bolt and reattach the lightning rod.

The town of Gliwice

and the surrounding Silesian countryside

stretches out for miles around them.

[Andrzej] There were experts who claimed that the tower

only had a dozen years left.

That was 25 years ago, and it's still standing.

[Narrator] Thanks to the work of Andrzej and his team,

this engineering icon of the Polish landscape

will survive for generations to come.

♪ ♪

Over the centuries, Polish engineers have not only

innovated in architecture and infrastructure,

they've also built extraordinary machines.

♪ ♪

Modern Polish engineers are pushing innovation

to spectacular new heights to draw visitors to the country.

In the Sudeten Mountains,

the spiraling Skywalk Tower lifts thrill-seekers

62 meters above the treetops.

In Lódz, the EC1 is a science center

built in the heart of a former industrial power station.

Now in the northwestern region of West Pomerania,

a bold new theme park is aiming to become

the next destination on Poland's tourism map.

The landscape between Warsaw and the Baltic coast

is a patchwork of arable fields.

but this traditional farming area

is gearing up for a boost from a wonder of modern engineering.

This is the construction site

of Pomerania's brand new Hossoland theme park.

Engineers here are building 50 attractions

across four themed sectors

that are inspired by Baltic legends and fairy tales.

Once complete, this multimillion-euro complex

will be among the largest theme parks in Europe.

[Anna Olszonowicz, translated] There has never been such

a project here in West Pomerania.

[Narrator] The most challenging part of the construction

is Hossoland's three mighty roller coasters.

The gravity-defying Aurora coaster is the largest.

It has a 400-meter-long track that launches passengers

up to 20 meters into the air.

♪ ♪

Workers manufacture the sections

of the roller coaster off-site

and they bolt together at the park, like a flat pack,

to speed up construction.

The pieces will only fit

if they all sit in perfect alignment,

like a 3D jigsaw.

[Narrator] Engineer Michal Demski is overseeing

the nerve-racking assembly.

[Michal Demski, translated] We have the closure

of the highest point on our coaster.

According to the design, everything should fit perfectly.

[Narrator] At the Hossoland theme park...

[Narrator] ...the team wrestles the roller coaster segment

into the gap.

Then they hammer the bolts into place.

When the park opens, a train of 10 suspended carriages

will race along these tracks at up to 50 kilometers per hour.

It can weigh up to 10 tons

when packed with thrill-seeking passengers,

so the structural integrity of the roller coaster

is paramount.

They carefully fine-tune the alignment,

so the ride runs as smoothly as possible.

[Narrator] As the track specialists bolt the segments

together, construction across the grounds is in full swing.

Workers are busy assembling the remaining

large-scale structures and adding the finishing touches

to the park's 130 sculptures.

♪ ♪

20 meters above, at the Aurora roller coaster,

the installation of the track segment is complete.

[Michal] First, I'm waiting to do a test drive,

and then I can't wait to open the park

when the guests are here and watch the first reactions.

[Narrator] Soon, this whole area will be filled

with thrill-seekers from all over Poland and beyond,

ready to experience these hair-raising new attractions.

Poland has a long history of creating groundbreaking ways

to cross the country's rugged landscape.

Polish engineers designed one of Europe's

first high-altitude cable cars.

The Elblag Canal uses 19th century

water-powered machinery to haul boats uphill on tracks.

In Mecina, engineers are using

an ingenious machine

to build a record-breaking new tunnel.

This is the site of one of Poland's

most ambitious railway projects.

[Mateusz Wanat, translated] This is a very big undertaking

that our country has not yet faced.

Never in the history of the construction

of both road and rail infrastructure.

[Narrator] When complete, the new route will link

Poland's second largest city, Kraków,

to the beauty of the Carpathian mountain range.

But to make the connection, the team must rebuild

the railway lines running

through the mountains.

They'll have to dig 20 new tunnels,

and one of them will be nearly four kilometers long,

the longest rail tunnel in Poland.

The biggest problem with digging

the record-breaking tunnel is the region's fragile bedrock,

which risks collapse.

So engineers are racing to assemble a colossal machine

that will reinforce the tunnel walls as it digs.

♪ ♪

This tunnel excavating machine is one of the largest

of its kind ever used on Polish soil.

A large cutter head spins at the front of the machine,

to burrow through at up to 30 meters per day.

As it digs, precast concrete panels are fed

into the back of the machine,

and it presses them onto the walls

to stop the tunnel from collapsing.

The most crucial stage of the machine assembly

is fitting the enormous 245-ton cutter head.

[Marcin Curkowicz, translated] The wind is going to play a big role.

Even the smallest mistake could throw everything off.

[Narrator] The team uses two monster 600-ton-capacity cranes

to raise the cutter head from the ground.

Then they slowly start to move it across the site

towards its final position at the front

of the tunnel-digging machine.

♪ ♪

[creaking]

Finally, once the cutter head is in position

above the machine,

the most complex phase of the operation begins.

With just two meters of clearance

between the machine and the tunnel entrance,

the crane operators lower the cutter head into place

with extreme precision.

♪ ♪

It takes several hours of painstaking work

to position the cutter head,

and the team can at last prepare the bolts

for the final fix.

[Marcin] Even though the wind picked up at times

during the cutter head connection,

it didn't disrupt us, and I think the whole team

can be proud of what we achieved today.

[Narrator] Over the next 10 months,

the machine will dig the nearly four-kilometer tunnel.

When complete, travelers on this new rail line

will be able to reach the breathtaking towns

and ski resorts in Poland's Carpathian Mountains

in record time.

Poland is a modern European nation

that's forging a bright and vibrant future.

Its booming economy continues to fuel innovation,

taking European engineering to ever greater heights.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪