The Four Domes Pavilion has a glass roof [VIDEO]

The panes are pulled up one after the other onto a steel rack, which was fitted earlier for a period of six weeks, by means of a special lift.

”Each pane weighs 200 kg and measures 2.40 m x 1.20 m. You can’t fit such huge pieces manually," explains Piotr Wróblewski, site manager at Budimex. „This is why a special >>spider<< lift has been brought in order to fit the panes," he adds.

First the panes are pulled up vertically, and then they are reversed to a horizontal position on the roof level. The glass used for roofing of the courtyard has heating properties. In winter, during a snowfall, fragments of the glazed roof can be turned on successively; when heated up, they will melt the accumulated snow.

The progress of works is also visible in the historic building – new plasters have been put on the facade of the courtyard, and new woodwork has been fitted in windows. Windows are black on the side of the courtyard and off-white on the outside – colours were selected on the basis of a stratigraphic analysis. Plasters are already being laid inside the building, the fitting of the ventilation system is almost complete, and screening grates will soon be installed under ventilating units.

The cracked construction of the northern dome has been reinforced with special carbon fibre mats. Apart from that, service ducts have also been created, in which all utility systems are hidden.

"We want to close the building till winter," says Piotr Wróblewski. „Soon we will fit floors and a floor heating system,” he adds.

The floor of the courtyard will also be provided with a special system that will provide heating in winter and cooling in summer. At the beginning of September, works started on new underground storage reservoirs that will accumulate water flowing down the roof. Their total volume is 140 cubic metres. The reservoirs will provide relief to the local stormwater drainage system, because water from them will be pumped directly into the municipal network. The reservoirs will not be visible – flowers and shrubs will be planted over them.

The Four Domes Pavilion was designed by Hans Poelzig and built in the years 1912-1913. Since the beginning, it has been used for exhibition purposes – in 1913, a historical exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the victory over Napoleon was presented there. In 2006, the pavilion and the Centennial Hall was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The Four Domes Pavilion was handed over to the National Museum in Wroclaw by the decision of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Currently the building is not available to visitors because of renovation works that started in April 2013 and should be finished by June 2015. The National Museum in Wroclaw received 50 million PLN of financial aid from the European Regional Fund via the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as a result of the signed agreement for supplementary funding of the refurbishment and reconstruction of the Four Domes Pavilion for exhibition purposes. The remaining amount of funds needed for the renovation - over 29 million PLN - was provided from the budget of the Self-Government of the Lower Silesia Province. The total cost of the renovation is over 79 million PLN. In the Four Domes Pavilion, the National Museum will gain 7,000 square metres of exhibition space, which will be used for the presentation of modern art.

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video: Arkadiusz Cichosz