Ostankino Tower

Name: Ostankino Tower
Address: RU

오스탄키노 타워

The Ostankino Tower is a television and radio tower in Moscow, Russia. It stands 540.1 m tall and was designed by Nikolai Nikitin. It is the tallest free-standing structure in Europe, and it was the first free-standing structure ever to pass 500 m. It was built to mark the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution and is named after Moscow's Ostankino district.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Country: Russia
Height: 540 m
Type: Tower

Quick answers

Where is Ostankino Tower?

Ostankino Tower is in Russia.

How tall is Ostankino Tower?

Ostankino Tower is about 540 m tall.

Moscow's television tower (540 m, 1967): the tallest free-standing structure in Europe, standing on ten concrete "legs".

Construction began in 1963 and finished in 1967. Between 1967 and 1974 it was the tallest free-standing structure in the world, until the CN Tower in Toronto went higher. When it opened, about 10 million people lived within the area its signals reached, and today that has grown to more than 15 million.

Why concrete?

The first plan was an open metal tower like the Eiffel Tower or Moscow's Shukhov Tower. Nikolai Nikitin, an expert in reinforced concrete, disliked it and suggested a concrete tower, pointing to a similar project in Stuttgart finished in 1956. His idea was taken seriously and he was allowed to prepare his own design. The result was a slim, strong tower of reinforced concrete.

Replacing an old tower

Before Ostankino, Moscow's TV signals came from the Shukhov Tower, a lattice tower from 1922. By the 1950s it was clear that it was reaching the end of its life. On good days, people in some towns around Moscow can see the Ostankino Tower from far away. Ostankino was built for the same job, sending out TV signals, but at a very different scale.