It has long been known that from 1913 to 1945, there was a water tower in Kharkiv, built according to the design of engineer Volodymyr Shukhov, a pioneer inventor of hyperboloid structures.

It was located on the territory of the Water Reservoir in front of the Hippodrome.

Its height was 33.5 m, the volume of the tank was 780 cubic meters. Before the construction of the tower, due to the weak pressure of the water supply in the Nagorny district, water often did not reach the 2nd floor normally, the tower solved this problem.

Water was supplied to the tower by German electric pumps.

But Poltava local historians know more details about it than Kharkiv ones. The fact is that in 1936 the tower was preserved. It survived the Second World War, but the old water tower in Poltava did not survive it.

In 1945, Kharkiv dismantled and transported Shukhov Tower to Poltava, Reshetylivska Street, 20, but due to lack of funding and engineering experience, installation and repairing works it in a new place at last for 8 years.

After several accidents, the tower began to work stably only in 1953, with a new reservoir of 800 cubic meters. And already in 1966 it became obsolete due to the modernization of water supply systems in Poltava.

But the tower stood for another 36 years and was dismantled only because of complaints from local residents who were afraid of the rusty structures falling on their house. They are still suing Poltava institutions for the final dismantling of tower remains on their private territory.

Poltava activists and local historians fought to preserve the tower, but in vain. Although the commission confirmed its emergency condition, the hyperboloid structures have a very good margin of safety – I am sure that the tower would still stand today with minimal repairs. In 2002, Poltava lost its architectural highlight associated with Kharkiv.

8 Shukhov water towers and 2 of his lighthouses have still been preserved in Ukraine and are the architectural landmarks of some cities (such as Mykolaiv, Cherkasy or Bila Tserkva).

A real gem among them is the Adzhigol Lighthouse (1911) in the Dnieper Estuary in the Kherson region. It is the tallest (76 m) and, perhaps, the most beautiful lighthouse in Ukraine. In 2022, the lighthouse was damaged by three Russian missile strikes. Its current condition is unknown, although there are rumors that it survived.

By the way, in the 1910s there was a fashion for equipping warships with masts of a similar hyperboloid design.