ThyssenKrupp Test Tower

With its spiraling facade, this tower essentially looks like a giant drill bit poking above the trees. Its purpose? To test new elevator technologies.

In 2014, ThyssenKrupp, a German manufacturer of high-speed elevators and lifts, began building this roughly 800-foot-tall tower. Its lift uses magnetic levitation to pull its ropeless elevators both horizontally and vertically, letting them move with the apparent floating ease of the famous glass elevator in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

But there’s a bonus, too. The tower also boasts an observation deck about 760 feet above the ground. It’s the highest visitor platform in Germany, and offers sweeping views of both the town and the countryside.

The behemoth tower, which opened to the public in October of 2017, is a strikingly modern addition to the Rottweil skyline, a small old town on the edge of the famous Black Forest. The picturesque town agreed to the construction of the tower under the condition that it had to add some sort a touristic appeal, which led to the creation of the visitor platform.