Mysterious Underground City of Osówka

The Mysterious Underground City of Osówka is an underground complex in Sierpnica in Lower Silesia, built as part of the Nazi Riese project. Today it operates as a museum with visitor routes leading through tunnels and underground halls.

Construction during the Second World War

Work on the complex began in mid-1943 and continued until 1945, as part of the Riese project, the largest mining and engineering construction of the Third Reich in the Owl Mountains. Prisoners were forced to work there, according to German documents as many as almost 30,000 people, most of them Jews, including survivors of the liquidated Łódź Ghetto and prisoners transported from Auschwitz-Birkenau. Work underground was hard, and mortality was high due to malnutrition, overwork and dangerous conditions. The construction was never completed: before the Red Army entered, the Germans destroyed part of the underground structures. The purpose of the whole undertaking remained secret; one hypothesis is that it was intended as a wartime headquarters for Adolf Hitler.

What can be seen underground

The underground parts of Osówka comprise three tunnels with a total length of 1,700 metres and two above-ground buildings with an area of 680 and 900 square metres. The visitor route includes an underground cinema with documentary films and interactive exhibitions with weapons and military equipment from the Second World War period. The historical route includes holograms and multimedia exhibitions, while the variant described as extreme leads exclusively by torchlight, with a boat crossing. The museum also offers a separate educational route for younger visitors and a themed route dedicated to the memory of the prisoners who built the complex.

Nearby

Osówka lies in the Owl Mountains, close to the summit of Osówka and not far from another accessible section of the same underground structure, the Riese Włodarz Underground Complex.

Practical information

• Administrative address: Grunwaldzka 20, Głuszyca (office open Monday to Friday, 9:00-16:00)
• Visiting hours: Monday, Tuesday, Sunday 10:00-17:00; Wednesday-Saturday 10:00-16:00 - it is worth checking the current schedule on the official website before visiting
• The route includes, among other things, a landing boat crossing, a suspension bridge and a caving ladder, so it is not fully adapted for people with limited mobility