Biały Słoń
| White Elephant | |
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Native names Polish: Biały Słoń Ukrainian: Білий слон |
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Ruins of the Observatory
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| Location | Pip Ivan, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine |
| Coordinates | 48°02′49″N 24°37′38″E / 48.04694°N 24.62722°ECoordinates: 48°02′49″N 24°37′38″E / 48.04694°N 24.62722°E |
| Elevation | 2,028 metres (6,654 ft) |
| Built | July 29, 1938 |
| Built for | Polish Armed Forces / Warsaw University |
| Architect | K.Marczewski, J.Pohoski |
| Governing body | Ivano-Frankivsk ODA (State Administration) |
Biały Słoń (English: White Elephant; Ukrainian: Білий слон, Bily slon) is a Polish name for an abandoned campus of the former Polish Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory, located at remote area on the peak of Pip Ivan in the Chornohora range of the Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine. It is the highest built residential structure in Ukraine.
The closest settlement today is a village of Zelena in Verkhovyna Raion (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast). Currently the observatory is classified under the registration number three as a monument of cultural heritage that is not considered for privatization.
The region was part of the Second Polish Republic when the observatory was established during the interbellum period. Biały Słoń, started in 1937 and completed in the summer of 1938, was the highest-elevated, permanently inhabited, building in Poland.
Since 2012 there are taking place a restoration work on initiative of the Ciscarpathian National University and the Warsaw University that is scheduled to be finished in 2018.
According to Wladyslaw Midowicz, the first and only director of the observatory, the construction of "Biały Słoń" was suggested by a group of influential Warsaw astronomers who managed to convince General Leon Berbecki, director of the influential Airborne and Antigas Defence League, to support it. General Tadeusz Kasprzycki, minister of military affairs, also backed the construction of the observatory.
Construction of this impressive building began in the summer of 1936 with an official ceremony for the placing of the cornerstone. Biały Słoń was a very expensive structure with total costs exceeding one million Polish złoty, a huge burden for the state budget of the time. Its walls were made of local sandstone, and due to lack of roads all material was carried to the site by local workers, Hutsuls, their horses and soldiers of the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment.
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