Centennial Hall

Address Wystawowa 1, 51-618 Wrocław

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Centennial Hall (Hala Stulecia) was built in 1913 by Max Berg to commemorate the centenary of Prussia's wars against Napoleon. Its enormous reinforced-concrete dome was a landmark in early modernist architecture and influenced a generation of engineers and architects across Europe and the United States.

The hall sits at the centre of a wider park designed by the same architect, with a pergola, an artificial lake, and the city zoo all within walking distance. The interior is still used for concerts, sporting events, and trade shows; a Discovery Centre on the lower level explains the building's history and engineering. Outside, the surreal pin-thin Iglica spire stands at the entrance, added in 1948 to obscure the structure's German imperial associations.

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A story
When Centennial Hall opened in 1913 its dome was the largest in the world built of reinforced concrete — 65 metres in span, exceeding the dome of the Pantheon in Rome. The architect Max Berg designed it as a structure that needed no internal columns, freeing the floor for crowds of up to 10,000.