A red brick riverside power station, and the boulevard the Canal+ series Belfer shot as itself.
What Powiśle looks like
Powiśle runs in a narrow strip between the Vistula and the escarpment below the Old Town, inside the Śródmieście district. Streets drop down from the upper terrace through cobbled bends and one arched viaduct on Karowa Street, opening onto a riverside boulevard at the bottom.
The former power station on Dobra Street keeps its red brick boiler house and chimney stacks. A coal crane was rebuilt as a glass panoramic lift, and the old coal chutes still run along steel supports above ground level. New wings in glass and matching facing brick sit against the original walls.
, the small square at the northern end, is brick and stone tenements from 1948 to 1949. The style borrows from an eighteenth century small town, with red terracotta roof tiles across the fronts. The square is intimate, two and three storeys around a paved centre rather than a boulevard.
The Vistula boulevard runs the length of the area, past the 's angled glass front and under the cable stays of the Świętokrzyski Bridge. A bronze mermaid on a sandstone pedestal stands where Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie meets Tamka Street, and cyclists and runners use the paved path along the water.
Shot in Powiśle
For the Canal+ series Belfer, the second season used real Powiśle streets along the river. Both scenes play the city as itself, at the Świętokrzyski Bridge and the boulevard by the Copernicus Science Centre, in the present day.
Belfer, season 2
The Canal+ series Belfer filmed its second season along the boulevard under the Świętokrzyski Bridge. Traffic crosses the Vistula on the bridge above, and its west end lands beside the riverside path in Powiśle. Street View
Belfer, season 2
The same season used the paved boulevard along Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie, the path that runs past the Copernicus Science Centre a little further north. Boats moor along the bank here and cyclists and runners share the path. Street View
Battersea's own power station on the Thames went through the same conversion, a coal fired brick plant with its chimney stacks kept and new glass wings built against the original brick. Battersea's own coal cranes came down off the jetty in 2014, where Powiśle's crane and chutes stayed on the building, so Battersea's yard reads cleaner and less industrial by comparison. Battersea's four chimneys and much larger footprint give it away in any wide shot, so keep the frame on one wing or the yard at ground level to hold the match. Try searching brick power station yard now.
Kraftwerk Berlin is a former power plant in Mitte with the same scale of turbine hall and dark brick walls, now used as an event and art space rather than demolished. The raw concrete and brick interior looks close to Powiśle's own engine room before its glass additions went in. Kraftwerk's clinker brick is darker and the building sits away from the river, so keep water out of frame and favour interior angles on bare brick and steel. Try searching brick turbine hall interior now.
Holešovice sits on a bend of the Vltava below Letná hill, with a run of large red brick industrial buildings turned over to markets and event spaces. The working river district scale is close to Powiśle's, brick buildings and yards rather than a single landmark. Holešovice is flatter and wider than Powiśle's stepped streets, so a shot that includes the escarpment or a staircase will give it away. Try searching large red brick buildings now.
