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Grudziądz

Play Waterworks!

Waterworks! is a free, card-based strategy game.
Travel back to the past and take on the challenge of supplying old Grudziądz with water!
Hire water carriers, expand the water supply network, use new inventions!!

Play!

Why should you play?

From the Middle Ages to the 19th century

The game starts in the Middle Ages, shortly after the foundation of the city and ends with in the early 19th century and when the era of the industrial revolution begins. The game is divided into several stages closely related to the history of water and water supply in Grudziądz.

Water in the city

The goal of the game is to distribute water and meet the needs of residents. As the city and its population develop, so does the need for increasingly complex technological solutions.

Development and inventions

As the game progresses, new opportunities and diverse technical solutions will appear that will streamline the water supply process. The city's development and the final result depend on your right decisions.

Based on research

The latest results of historical, archaeological and field research were used to create the game. Please note that there are some simplifications in the game as we needed to balance 'playability', science and the real image of the city.

Litografia z 1795 r. autorstwa H. Aschenbrennera przedstawiająca Grudziądz od zachodniej strony Wisły; H. B. Meyer, Graudenz. Eine Stadtgeschichte in Bildern, Danzig 1941.

A game based on historical studies...

The results of historical research conducted in archives and research centres in Poland, Germany and Sweden were used to develop the game. We found documents and information which told us the history of water supply to Grudziądz from the Middle Ages until the construction of the modern water supply system at the end of the 19th century. Old maps, prints, illustrations and technical plans also turned out to be valuable sources, some of which had not been previously discovered.

Grudziądz, a city built on the bank of the Vistula and surrounded by wetlands, paradoxically struggled with difficulties in accessing clean drinking water from the very beginning. Due to the altitude, digging traditional dredging wells was costly, time consuming and insufficient.

Panorama of Grudziądz from the Vistula side

Plan przedmieść Grudziądza z 1756 r. Archiwum Państwowe w Gdańsku, sygn. 1126/611.

The development and the growing number of inhabitants of medieval Grudziadz resulted in the necessity to provide more and more drinking water. Water in Wisła was unfit for consumption, and taking it directly from the mill channel was an impractical solution considering the ever-increasing demand.

A publicly accessible water supply network was needed that would supply clean drinking water directly to the city. The invention of a water supply system was not unknown in the Teutonic state: Elbląg, Gdańsk and Toruń had their own waterworks in the fourteenth century. However, the altitude of Grudziądz meant that traditional water supply systems based on gravitational water fall would not be an adequate solution. Innovative solutions were implemented, including the construction of an unusual device: waterworks.

Plan kunsztu wodnego z 1800 r. Archiwum Państwowe w Toruniu, Akta miasta Grudziądza, sygn. 441.

...and field studies.

We also conducted field research in Grudziądz and identified the remains of former hydro-technical facilities.

One of the most interesting and oldest surviving buildings is the water tower. It adjoins the inner line of the southern city walls and has not been the subject of separate scientific research so far.

We started our field research here by taking aerial photos with a drone. The photos and videos not only made it possible for us to meticulously document all the architectural details of the water tower but also covered a much wider area, including the preserved historic part of the southern city walls.

Widok na południowe mury miejskie w Grudziądzu z drona

After documenting the external elements of the water tower, our next step was to explore its interior. Both the entrance to the inside of the tower and the descent to the very bottom of the deep chimney were carried out at high altitudes, so we had to use ropes and other security measures.

The next stage of our fieldwork was the use of a 3D laser scanner, thanks to which we made very precise measurements of the entire object - both from the outside and inside. In this way, we obtained a realistic, digital tower model.

Wizualizacja wieży wykonana przy użyciu skanera laserowego 3D

Finally, we conducted GPR studies to identify the remains of former hydro-technical devices located underground.

Our research was non-invasive. We did not interfere in the structure of hydro-technical facilities and did not conduct excavations. The research was approved by the President of Grudziądz and the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Toruń.

Article

The detailed results of our research was published in the journal Water History, Springer Nature, in 2022:

Urban water supply infrastructure in Grudziądz (northern Poland): from the Middle Ages to the pre-modern times

The support of the project

"Modern methods of disseminating historical research results: a computer game" – a task financed under contract 521/P-DUN/2019 from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education allocated to the Dissemination of Science Activity.
Project manager Wacław Kulczykowski.

"Construction of medieval water supply systems for settlement centres in the Osa River Valley in the Chełmno Land" – a project financed by the National Science Center as part of the PRELUDIUM 12 competition (research project number 2016/23/N/HS3/03168).
Project Manager: Wacław Kulczykowski.

Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego