Triangulation tower (Shartash forest park)

The triangulation tower in the Shartash forest park is a concrete geodetic marker about 14 metres tall in Yekaterinburg, close to the Kamennye Palatki rocks and Vladimir Vysotsky Street. Its unusual paintwork makes many people take it for an art object, and since 2020 they have been partly right: the tower is now a piece of street art in the Sverdlovsk region.

History

The tower was built as a reference point for topographic surveys and other geodetic work. Markers like this fix points with known coordinates and elevation above sea level, from which mapping and construction measurements are taken. At the top there is a metal platform reached by a ladder.

In August 2020 the Voronezh artist Yan Posadsky painted the tower during the STENOGRAFFIA street art festival. Since then the geodetic marker has also been known as the art object "Radio".

The "Radio" art object

The idea comes from the story of the announcer Yuri Levitan, who broadcast from Sverdlovsk during the Second World War. The tower is painted black and covered with about 7,000 dots of reflective film, arranged to show electromagnetic waves spreading out from a radio mast.

By day it reads as a graphic pattern on a dark background. At dusk, bring a torch: point the beam at the tower and the dots light up, as if it were sending a signal. In the evening it is also a good spot to watch the sunset through the pines.

Getting there and practical tips

The tower stands about 300 metres from the "Ulitsa Vysotskogo" bus stop, in the wooded part of the park near Kamennye Palatki. The path is short and easy to combine with a walk to the rocks and Lake Shartash.

Climbing it is risky: the lower part of the ladder is missing, so the first rungs are hard to reach, and the tower is tall. Only climb if you are confident, preferably not alone, and remember that coming down is usually harder than going up. The artwork is easy to see and photograph from the ground.