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Sopot

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This page is about the city Sopot in Poland. For other cities with the same name see Sopot (disambiguation)

Template:Infobox Poland Sopot (pronounce: ['sɔpɔt]; Template:Audio-de; Kashubian: Sopòt) is a seaside town in Eastern Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000.

City centre

Sopot is a powiat capital in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Until 1999 it formed a part of the Gdańsk Voivodeship. Along with Gdańsk and Gdynia, Sopot is part of the trojmiasto (Tricity) metropolitan agglomeration.

Sopot is a large health-spa and tourist resort destination, well known for the longest wooden pier in Europe, the Molo (at 515.5 meters), from which one can see the Gulf of Gdańsk. The city is also famous for its Sopot International Song Festival, the largest such event in Europe after the Eurovision Song Contest.

City name

The name Sopot stems from an old Slavic word meaning "spring" or "source". It was mentioned as Sopoth in 1283 and Sopot in 1291. The German name Zoppotis a Germanization of the original Slavic name. Between the two world wars the plural names Sopoty or Copoty were in common use.

History

Historical population
of Sopot

1819 350
1842 937
1874 2,800
1900 11,800
1914 17,400
1919 18,400
1933 30,800
1947 26,900
1950 ?
1960 44,000
1970 47,700
1975 51,700
1980 51,300
1990 46,700
1995 43,700
1998 43,000
2000 41,432

Sopot was founded as a Slavonic (Pomeranian) stronghold in the 7th century. Initially it was a commercial trade outpost for commerce extending both up the Vistula river and to cities across the Baltic Sea. With time the significance of the stronghold diminished and by the 10th century it was reduced to a fishing village, with the village itself eventually abandoned. However, a century later the area was settled again and two villages were founded within the confines of today's' city: Stawowie and Gręzowo. They were first mentioned in 1186 as being granted to the Cistercian abbey in Oliwa. Another of the villages that constitute today's Sopot, Świemirowo, was first mentioned in 1212 in a document by Mściwój I, Duke of Gdańsk, who granted it to the Norbertan monastery in nearby Żukowo.

The Sopot village, which later became the namesake for the whole city, was first mentioned in 1283 when it was located as a fishing village and granted to the Cistercians. By 1316 the abbey bought all villages in the area and became the owners of all the area of the city. After the Toruń Peace Treaty of 1466 the area was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland.

The spa for the citizens of Gdańsk has been active since the 16th century. Until the end of that century most noble and magnate families from Gdańsk built their manors and palaces in Sopot. During the negotiations of the Treaty of Oliva King John II Casimir lived in one of them, while Swedish negotiator Magnus de la Gardie resided in another -- it has been called the Swedish Manor ever since.

During the War of the Polish Succession in 1733 the Imperial Russian troops besieged the nearby city of Gdańsk and a year later looted and burnt the village of Sopot to the ground. After the war ended, Sopot was deserted and the manors were abandoned until the mid-18th century.

Monument of the Armia Krajowa

In 1757 and 1758 most of the destroyed manors were bought by the Pomeranian magnate family of Przebendowski. General Józef Przebendowski bought nine palaces with surrounding gardens and in 1786 his widow, Bernardyna Przebendowska (nee Kleist), bought the remaining two. Sopot was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1772 in the First Partition of Poland. Following the new laws imposed by King Frederick the Great, church property was confiscated by the state. The village was reconstructed and in 1806 the area was sold to a merchant from Gdańsk named Carl Christoph Wegner.

In 1819 Wenger opened the first public bath in Sopot and tried to promote the newly-established spa among the inhabitants of Danzig, but the undertaking was a financial failure. However, in 1823 Dr. Jean Georg Haffner, a former medic of the French army, financed a new bath complex that gained significant popularity. In the following years Haffner erected more facilities. By 1824 a sanatorium was opened to the public, as well as a 63 m long pier, cloakrooms, and a park. Haffner died in 1830, but his enterprise was continued by his stepson, Ernst Adolf Böttcher. The latter continued to develop the area and in 1842 a new theatre and sanatorium were opened. By then the number of tourists coming to Sopot every year rose to almost 1,200.

In 1870 Sopot saw the opening of its first rail line: the new Danzig - Kolberg rail road that was later extended to Berlin. Good rail connections added to the popularity of the area and by 1900 the number of tourists had reached almost 12,500 a year.

In 1873 the village of Sopot became an administrative centre of the Gemeinde. Soon other villages were incorporated into the commune and in 1874 the number of inhabitants of the village rose to over 2,800.

Crooked House in Sopot

At the beginning of the 20th century it was the favourite spa of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. In the beginning of the century the city became a holiday resort for the inhabitants of nearby Danzig, as well as aristocracy from Berlin, Warsaw, and Königsberg. Soon after World War I a casino was founded in the Grand Hotel as the primary source of money for the treasury of the Free City of Danzig.

In 1877 the self-government of the Gemeinde bought the village from the descendants of Dr. Haffner and started its further development. A second sanatorium was constructed in 1881 and the pier was extended to 85 metres. In 1885 the gas works were built. Two years later tennis courts were built and the following year a horse-racing track was opened to the public. There were also several facilities built for the permanent inhabitants of Sopot, not only for the tourists. Among those were two new churches: Protestant (September 17, 1901) and Catholic (December 21, 1901).

On October 8, 1901, Wilhelm II granted Sopot city rights, which allowed the city to grow even faster than before. In 1904 a new balneological sanatorium was opened. In 1907 new baths south of the old ones were built in Viking style. In 1909 a new theatre was opened in the nearby forest within the city limits, in the place where today the Sopot Festival is held every year. By 1912 a third complex of baths, sanatoria, hotels, and restaurants was opened, attracting even more tourists. Shortly before World War I the city had 17,400 permanent inhabitants and over 20,000 tourists every year.

Pier in Sopot Longest wooden pier in Europe - 450 meter from bank, 650 whole

Following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles Sopot became a part of the Free City of Danzig. Thanks to the proximity of the Polish and German borders the economy of the town soon recovered. The newly-built casino became one of the main sources of income of the tiny free-city state. In 1927 the city authorities built the Kasino-Hotel, one of the most notable landmarks of Sopot today. After World War II it was renamed to Grand Hotel and continues to be one of the most luxurious hotels in Pomerania.

Since 1922 in the Forest Opera a Richard Wagner Festival was held. The festival reached high quality and Sopot was sometimes referred to as the "Bayreuth of the North". In 1928 the pier was extended to its present length: 512 metres. Since then it is the longest wooden pier in Europe and one of the longest in the world. In the early 1930s the city reached the peak of its popularity among the foreign tourists -- more than 30,000 arrived every year (this number does not include tourists from Danzig itself, who also spent their vacations there). However, in the 1930s the tension on the Polish border and the rising popularity of Nazism began to discourage foreign tourism. In 1938 some local Germans Nazis burnt the synagogue in Sopot.

World War II broke out on September 1, 1939. The following day the Free City of Danzig was annexed by Nazi Germany and most of the local Poles, Kashubians, and Jews were arrested and expelled. As the war raged on, the city's tourist industry collapsed. The last Wagner Festival was held in 1942.

St. George's Church

The Soviet Union's Red Army entered Sopot on March 23, 1945. Sopot in 1945 lost approximately 10% of its buildings -- some during the fighting, but a good number were burned to the ground by drunken Soviet conscripts after the fighting had ceased on May 8, 1945. The Red Army soldiers burned and looted most of the buildings close to the pier, including the health-spa sanatoria complex.

As per the Potsdam Conference, Sopot was incorporated into the post-war Polish state. The authorities of Gdańsk Voivodeship were located in Sopot until the end of 1946. Most of the German inhabitants who had remained in the city after the evacuation before the advancing Red Army were soon to be expelled, and soon settlers from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union would arrive.

After the war Sopot recovered rapidly. A tramway line to Gdańsk was opened, as well as the Higher School of Music, the Higher School of Maritime Trade, a library, and an art gallery. Since 1948 (during the city presidency Jan Kapusta) the Arts Festival has been held in Sopot. In 1952 the tramways were replaced by a heavy-rail commuter line connecting Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia. Although in 1954 the Higher School of Arts was moved to Gdańsk, Sopot remained an important centre of culture. In 1956 the first Polish jazz festival was held there (until that year jazz was banned by the Communist authorities) which was the forerunner of the still annual Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw. In 1961 the first International Song Contest was held in the Opera of the Forest. Two years later the main street of Sopot (Bohaterów Monte Cassino) was turned into a pedestrian-only promenade.

New complexes of baths, sanatoria, and hotels were opened in 1972 and 1975. By 1977 Sopot had approximately 54,500 inhabitants, the highest ever in its history. In 1979 the historical downtown came under protection of the state as a national heritage center. The martial law declared by Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1981 and the following period of economical decline ended with the fall o fthe communist regime in 1989. In 1995 the southern bath and sanatoria complex were extended significantly and two years later the Saint Adalbert spring was opened. Thanks to that in 1999 Sopot regained its official spa town status. In 2001 Sopot celebrated the 100th anniversary of its city charter.

Famous people

The following is a list of notable personalities born or living in the city.

Guests and visitors of the spa resorts and the Grand Hotel have included:

Mayors

Economy

Major corporations

High education

Transportation

Interestingly, Sopot does not have its own municipal mass transit. The city is covered by both the Gdynia and Gdańsk municipal bus lines, the commuter rail line (with three stops: Sopot, Sopot Wyścigi and Sopot Kamienny Potok), and the Polish national railway, PKP.

Sports

See also: Sports in Tricity

There are many popular professional sports teams in Sopot and the tri-city area. The most popular in Sopot today is probably basketball thanks to the award-winning Prokom Trefl Sopot. Amateur sports are played by thousands of Sopot citizens, as well as in schools of all levels (elementary, secondary, and university).

  • Prokom Trefl Sopot - men's basketball team, Polish Champion 2004= 1st place in Era Basket Liga, will play in basketball Euroleague
  • Idea Prokom Open - ATP and WTA tennis tournament held in August. Rafael Nadal and Flavia Pennetta won in 2004.
  • Ogniwo Sopot - [MKS Ogniwo Sopot] is a rugby club, founded in 1965. Since the 80's, Ogniwo is one of the best Polish rugby teams. They were undefeated since 1989 to 1993, with Edward Hodura as a coach.

Twin cities

See also

54°27′N 18°34′E / 54.450°N 18.567°E / 54.450; 18.567

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