The Water Tower from Turnu Măgurele was built in 1915 with the objective to supply water to the city. Today is declared a historical monument.
Since past, city residents have had problems with water. Between 1890 and 1907 there have been repeated attempts to identify the major sources of groundwater, but without success. In April 1909, following the studies coordinated by Eng. Elie Radu, was proposed the only saving solution: to supply the city with water from the Danube. The water to be decanted, filtered and sterilized using ozone. The project of the Water Castle from Drobeta was approved by the Town Council on 10 June 1910 upon the engineer’s Elie Radu plans. The castle had to be located at the highest elevation in the city, at 104 meters altitude for an advantageous distribution in all parts of the city. The works were conducted under the supervision of Eng. Ciocâlteu Petre, Head of Technical Service of Mehedinţi county.
The castle was completed in 1913 and opened a year later, when was put into operation the entire system of water supply of the city. The opening was attended by Prime Minister I.I.C.Brătianu Ministers Al. Constantinescu and V.Gh. Mortun, Ghenadie Bishop of Râmnic of Noul Severin and local officials. In 1915, it was placed at its base an inscription in memory of the moment when the foundation stone was set and when the works began. The Water Castle is 27 meters high and is the tallest building from Drobeta. It was built in medieval style. The construction was paid from a loan contracted by the City Hall at the Commune Credit House. The entire system had a capture station upstream of the city, the water plant which made the decantation, filtration and sterilization and, not the least, the water tower, planned to make the distribution. It was designed to be raised from reinforced concrete and organized inside with two stacked reservoirs. Each reservoir deserve a part of the city. Their capacity was of 1025 cubic meters.
During World War I, the castle was used by the German army as a observation point. It was an ideal place because of the four small towers, originally made to be used by firefighters. As time passed, the city has continued to develop, the settling tanks within the Castel proved insufficient and was brought into disscution the question of building a third a basin. This is achieved in 1964 and is set in the attick zone, over the last concrete floor of the building.
In 1980, construction loses its usefulness and is intended for workshops and for the offices of the company that provide drinking water company in Drobeta. Because today’s water supply is provided by another system, Water Castle has a new functionality.
In 2010, the castle has entered into a project of modernization and preservation, so in June 2012, entered into tourist circuit. Rehabilitation costs mount to 1 million euros of European funds.
Today, the building is conceived as a sequence of vertically spaces, to house a tourist information center, an exhibition space and art gallery, a museum “History of the water supply of Drobeta Turnu Severin”, an exhibition of photographs and sculpture, a literary café and lookout area.
