Project “RIESE”

Riese (Giant) is the code name for a construction project of Nazi Germany in 1943-1945, consisting of seven underground structures located in the Owl Mountains in Lower Silesia, previously Germany, now a territory of Poland.

World War II. From 1943, the Germans were undertaking large-scale construction works known as the Project Riese in the region of the Owl Mountains. The construction was never finished and what remains today is a number of constructions, the purpose of which is still uncertain. The Walimskie Drifts is a place of remembrance. Thousands of innocent people from various European countries died here.

The Drifts are more than 500 meters long, with the capacity of 14 000 m3. The Structure consists of three parallel tunnels.

A tourist route is enriched with audio-visual effects.

V2 rocket – a 13-meter model (1:1 scale) of the German retribution weapon from The World War II.

The model of the flying bomb V1 – German retribution weapon used to attack Great Britain and Belgium.

In the decades following the WWII, only few dare-devils could admire the enormous work, which had been done in drilling the kilometers of tunnels in solid rock and which had cost the lives of thousands of people. 

Today, it is a safe and easily accessible tourist attraction. We invite you to visit one of the most interesting and most mysterious military places in the Owl Mountains – the Walimskie Drifts Complex in Rzeczka, in the Walim commune.