Leśnica is a very old city (it was given civic rights before 1261), and since 1928 it has been a part of Wrocław. It bears the name of the river flowing through it (1226: Lesnyc, now: Bystrzyca). In the 12th century a minor ducal grad (type of settlement) was situated there, which served as a stopover place for the duke’s court on journeys between Wrocław and Legnica. During one such stopover duke Boleslaus the Tall died there in 1201. Later a castle was erected on the site of the grad.
The buildings in Leśnica are mostly historical, and they maintained the small town’s size, form and spatial set-up. The most important monument is the castle, rebuilt in the Baroque style, surrounded by its original bastions, with a vast park and the nearby church of Saint Hedwig from the 15th century. On the site one can find many interesting items related to technology and industry, such as the hydroelectric power station in nearby Marszowice (erected in 1912, rebuilt in 1923 with a working Francis and Simens turbine preserved from the time of the reconstruction), the mill (originally a water mill) by the river Młynówka, the remaining equipment from the projection room of the old ‘Zamek’ cinema (from the 1950s) and the water tower located in the Mokrzański Forest. At the beginning of the 20th century a water system (1917) and a sewer system (1903-1913) were created in Leśnica. During the construction of these systems four deep wells were drilled and in 1915 a water tower 60 m high was built. It is the last working tower of this type in Wrocław. The water from the well is pumped (by pumps built in 1913) to the water station, where it goes through many different tanks and vats, being purified and oxidized, and after that it goes to a basin where the iron is extracted. Then the water flows to the main vat, from where it goes to the water supply system. The excess water is pumped to the water tower.
The tower has a typical structure adjusted to its function. It has a narrow, cylindrical shaft keeping the pipes and a staircase inside, a wide head with the tower vat and a ground floor building containing the rest of the equipment. The elevation is made of concrete. The austere, modernist decoration of the building is reminiscent of old fortified buildings due to the cordon and the quasi-machicolation at the loopholes. The round building on the ground floor with its partition wall framing and narrow windows looks like a bastion, just like in a ‘water castle’.
At the end of World War II the tower was bombed and damaged. In 2008 it was listed on the Heritage Register.
The tower in Leśnica is used by the Municipal Water and Sewage Enterprise. The interiors are only occasionally open to visitors.