Told from Above · a Shramko 360 series
Author: Andrii ShramkoPasieka Island and Ostrówek, Opole — a guided 360° flight
- 6 min
- 360° · 8K
- Open captions
- Online since 19 October 2026
On this pond, a fourteen-year-old girl became the German figure skating champion.
About the film
She was Maxi Herber, later an Olympic champion. In this film I fly over Pasieka, an island between the Oder and the Młynówka, over the Penny Bridge (Most Groszowy) and the Piast Tower.
The guide tells, among other things, how Polish protests saved the Piast Tower when the castle on Ostrówek was being demolished from 1928 on, and how the Penny Bridge got its name. One more story from the film: in 1897 Opole's new rabbi, Leo Baeck, opened the doors of the synagogue on the island, and in 1997 the Oder flood covered all of Pasieka.
If you are ever in Opole, visit the Millennium Amphitheatre (Amfiteatr Tysiąclecia): the song festival stage was finished the day before it opened.
Places in the film
- Pasieka Island Map
- Ostrówek Map
- Młynówka channel Map
- Penny Bridge (Most Groszowy) Map
- Domek Lodowy Map
- Piast Tower (Wieża Piastowska) Map
- Millennium Amphitheatre Map
The guide's full text (English)
The Młynówka below us looks like a canal, but it is an old bed of the Odra. It carried the river's main stream until a great flood, and city plans then called it the Oder Fluss.
The Młynówka once worked as a transshipment port, until a new river port at Zakrzów took over that role. A lock was built on it, and city plans marked it as the Winter Hafen, the winter harbour.
Regency president von Pückler founded a society to beautify Opole, and councillor Ludwig Sack ran it with energy. They began by laying out a park on Pasieka, and later the island became a place for villas.
Crossing here once cost a grosz, and that toll gave Most Groszowy its name. The year 1894 brought a footbridge for walkers here, and the year 1903 the double-span bridge itself. A green footbridge crosses the water.
A rake, a crossed scythe and a spade marked the seal of Wilhelmsthal, the colony on Pasieka named after Wilhelm Krause, a regency building councillor, which later became part of Opole.
Old Ostrowek in the north, with the castle, and the colony of Wilhelmstal once shared this island. They merged into a single commune, and by the early twentieth century the island had grown into a villa quarter.
Franz Idzikowski already argued that the name Ostrówek comes from Old Polish for a little island, an islet in a river. The district lies between the wider Odra to the west and the narrower Młynówka to the east.
Rabbi Adolf Wiener and the wealthy pharmacist Ernst Muhr championed a new synagogue for Opole's Jewish community. The idea was well received, and it became the largest in the town, on what was then Hafenstrasse.
In June 1897 the new rabbi of Opole, Leo Baeck, opened the doors of the synagogue with the words: Behold, I open you, O consecrated gate, for the pious faithful.
After the war a nursery rose where the synagogue stood. In 1998 a stone was set there for the synagogue burned in 1938, with a plaque in Polish, German and Hebrew: people will not forget.
In July 1997 the Oder's flood of the century covered this whole island, and in its streets the water stood several metres high. A pond lies below us.
Domek Lodowy, the Ice House, saw a fourteen-year-old become German champion: the skater Maxi Herber won the German figure skating title here, and later became an Olympic champion. The red-roofed chalet stands by the pond.
Ships still moored on the Oder at the island's northern tip into the twentieth century, north of us, and the street there was called Hafenstraße, Harbour Street, until the end of the war.
Mayor Musioł and Jerzy Grygolunas of Polish Radio started the song festival at Amfiteatr Tysiąclecia. The stage was finished the day before the opening; Musioł checked the works at five every morning. A silver shell roofs the stage.
Polish protests saved Wieża Piastowska: when regency president Alfons Proske had the castle pulled down from 1928, the Polish minority and the Union of Poles in Germany stopped the tower's demolition. The round brick tower stands beside us.
Retreating German troops blew up the old bridge in early 1945, and its successor, Most Piastowski, finished in the year 1963, stands on the foundations of its pier. The white double-arched bridge crosses the Odra.
The town kept a store of iron and copper here on Ostrówek, charging for its use, and through it the road from the west entered by the Oder Gate, also called the Wrocław Gate.
Bishop Jan Kropidło paid for Kościół Świętego Aleksego, built after the year 1421 together with the hospital next to it. Its slim gilded spire rises over the roofs.
How the film was made
8K (7680×3840), 60 fps. Open captions in English, burned into the picture: three copies around the view, one next to the place being described. Narration: a synthetic voice in English.
The guide's facts come from:
Back to all filmsFor the cityFilms for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers
Andrii Shramko
Engineer and filmmaker, living in Bydgoszcz. I have been filming 360° in motion since 2015.