Sopot is a major health-spa and resort destination. It has the longest woodenpier in Europe, at 511.5 metres, stretching out into theBay of Gdańsk. The city is also famous for theSopot International Song Festival, the largest such event in Europe after theEurovision Song Contest. Among its other attractions is a fountain ofbromide spring water, known as the "inhalation mushroom".
The city's name is thought to derive from an oldLechitic word,sopot, meaning "stream"[2] or "spring".[3] The same root occurs in a number of other Lechitictoponyms; it is probablyonomatopeic, imitating themurmur (Šepot) of running water.
The name is first recorded asSopoth in 1283 andSopot in 1291. The Germanized formZoppot is derived from the original Polish name. In the 19th century and in the interwar years the German name was re-Polonized asSopoty (a plural form).[2] "Sopot" was made the official Polish name when the town returned under Polish rule in 1945.
The area of today's Sopot contains the site of a 7th-century Slavonic (Pomeranian) stronghold. Initially it was a commercial trade outpost for commerce extending both up theVistula river and to cities north across theBaltic Sea. With time the significance of the stronghold diminished and by the 10th century it was reduced to a fishing village, eventually abandoned. However, a century later the area was settled again and two villages were founded within the borders of today's city: Stawowie and Gręzowo. They were first mentioned in 1186 as being granted to theCistercianabbey inOliwa. Another of the villages that constitute today's Sopot, Świemirowo, was first mentioned in 1212 in a document byMestwin I, who granted it to thePremonstratensian (Norbertine) monastery in nearby Żukowo.
The village of Sopot, which later became the namesake for the whole city, was first mentioned in 1283 when it was granted to the Cistercians. At that time it was part ofPoland until the 14th-centuryTeutonic invasion. By 1316, the abbey had bought all villages in the area and became the owners of all the area of the city. After theSecond Peace of Thorn (1466) the area was reincorporated into theKingdom of Poland.
During the 1733War of the Polish Succession,Stanisław Leszczyński stayed in Sopot a few days before going to the nearby city of Gdańsk.[4] AfterwardsImperial Russian troopsbesieged Gdańsk and a year later looted and burned the village of Sopot to the ground.[4] Much of Sopot would remain abandoned during and in the following years after the conflict, as thepatricians of Gdańsk, exhausted by the war, could not afford to rebuild the Sopot residences.[5]
In the 1750s,Polish nobility ofPomerania began to rebuild the village.[5] In 1757 and 1758 most of the ruined manors were bought by themagnate family of Przebendowski. GeneralJózef Przebendowski bought nine of these palaces and in 1786 his widow, Bernardyna Przebendowska (néevon Kleist), bought the remaining two. Also the Sierakowski family acquired some properties, including the destroyed Swedish Manor.[5] After thePartitions of Poland, in the 1790s, CountKajetan Onufry Sierakowski [pl] built the Sierakowski Mansion at the site of the Swedish Manor, a typicalPolish manor house, which remains one of the most distinctive buildings of pre-spa Sopot.[6]
Sopot was annexed by theKingdom of Prussia in 1772 in theFirst Partition of Poland. Following the new laws imposed by KingFrederick the Great, church property was confiscated by the state. The village was still being reconstructed and in 1806 the area was sold to the Danzig/Gdańsk merchant Carl Christoph Wegner. However, until 1819 it did not develop significantly, its population in 1819 was 350,[4] compared to 301 in the year of Prussian annexation.[6]
In 1819, Wegner opened the first public bath in Zoppot and tried to promote the newly established spa among the inhabitants ofDanzig (Gdańsk), but the undertaking was a financial failure. However, in 1823Jean Georg Haffner, a former medic of theFrench army, financed a new bath complex that gained significant popularity. In the following years, Haffner erected more facilities. By 1824, asanatorium was opened to the public, as well as a 63-metrepier, 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 opened a newtheatre and sanatorium. By then the number of tourists coming to Zoppot every year had risen to almost 1,200.
In 1870 Zoppot saw the opening of its first rail line: the new Danzig-Kołobrzeg (thenKolberg)rail road that was later extended toBerlin. Good rail connections added to the popularity of the area and by 1900 the number of tourists had reached almost 12,500 a year.
Church of the Saviour
In 1873, the village of Zoppot became anadministrative centre of theGemeinde. Soon other villages were incorporated into it and in 1874 the number of inhabitants of the village rose to over 2,800. In 1877, the self-government of the Gemeinde bought the village from the descendants of 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 Zoppot, not only for the tourists. Among those were two new churches:Protestant (September 17, 1901) andCatholic (December 21, 1901). From the late 19th century, there was a significant influx ofGerman settlers with the slow growth of thePolish population, resulting in a change in ethnic proportions in favor of the former.[5]
Since the late 19th century the city became a holiday resort for the inhabitants of nearby Danzig, as well as wealthy aristocrats from Berlin,Warsaw, andKönigsberg. Poles visited the city in large numbers and the spa was very popular among the Polish intellectual elite, to the extent that the early 20th-century Polish writerAdolf Nowaczyński [pl] named it "the extension of Warsaw to the Baltic Sea".[5] Germans and Russians also visited the city.[5] At the beginning of the 20th century, it was a favourite spa of EmperorWilhelm II of Germany.
Karlikowo Manor, place of stay of KingJohn II Casimir of Poland in 1660, before demolition by the Germans in 1910
On October 8, 1901, Wilhelm II granted Zoppotcity rights, spurring further rapid growth. In 1904 a newbalneological sanatorium was opened, followed in 1903 by alighthouse. In 1907, new baths south of the old ones were built inViking style. In 1909 a new theatre was opened in the nearby forest within the city limits, in the place where today theSopot Festival is held every year. By 1912, a third complex of baths, sanatoria, hotels, and restaurants was opened, attracting even more tourists. Shortly beforeWorld War I the city had 17,400 permanent inhabitants and over 20,000 tourists every year.
Following the signing of theTreaty of Versailles in 1919, Zoppot became a part of theFree City of Danzig incustoms union with the re-establishedPolish Republic. Due to the proximity of thePolish andGerman borders, the economy of the town soon recovered. The newcasino became one of the main sources of income of the free-city state. In 1927, the city authorities rebuilt the Kasino-Hotel, one of the most notable landmarks in Sopot today. AfterWorld War II, it was renamed as theGrand Hotel and continues to be one of the most luxurious hotels in Poland.
Zoppot's synagogue, built in 1914, was burned down by local German Nazis in 1938, just two days afterKristallnacht
ARichard Wagner festival was held in the nearbyForest Opera in 1922. The festival's success caused Zoppot to be sometimes referred to as the "Bayreuth of the North". As a result of the influx of Germans in the previous decades, who took over the most important functions in the city, some Poles becameGermanized, however a significant indigenous Polish community was still present in the city, and there was also a Jewish community.[7] In 1928, thepier was extended to its present length of 512 metres. Since then it has remained the longest wooden pier in Europe and one of the longest in the world. In 1928, the city was visited by 29,192 visitors, mostly Poles[7] and in the early 1930s it reached the peak of its popularity among foreign tourists — more than 30,000 annually (this number does not include tourists from Danzig itself). However, by the 1930s, tensions on the nearby Polish-German border and the rising popularity ofNazism inGermany and also among local Germans saw a decline in foreign tourism. TheNazi Party, supported by many local Germans, took power in the city.[7] Local Poles and Jews were discriminated against[7] and in 1938 local German Nazis burned down Zoppot'ssynagogue.[4]
German soldiers and custom officials reenact the removal of the Polish border crossing in Sopot in September 1939 for the purposes ofNazi German propaganda
World War II broke out on September 1, 1939, after the Germaninvasion of Poland. The following day the Free City of Danzig was annexed byNazi Germany and most of the localPoles,Kashubians, andJews were arrested[8] and murdered during theIntelligenzaktion,[7] imprisoned or expelled. Due to the war, the city's tourist industry collapsed. The last Wagner Festival was held in 1942.
The city remained under German rule until early 1945. In March the Nazis began evacuating the German population along withforced laborers.[7] On March 23, 1945, theSoviet Army took over the city after several days of fighting, in which Zoppot lost approximately 10% of its buildings;[6] three days later, the Soviet 70th Army reached theGdańsk Bay coast north of the city.[9]
As per thePotsdam Conference, Zoppot was incorporated into the post-war Polish state and its original name Sopot was restored. The authorities ofGdańsk Voivodeship were located in Sopot until the end of 1946. Most of the German inhabitants who had remained in the city (by 1 November 1945 6,000 Germans still lived in the town,[10] after the evacuation before the advancing Soviet Army) were soon to beexpelled, to make room for Polish settlers fromformer eastern Polish territories annexed by the Soviet Union.
The Sopot beach in the 1950s with theGrand Hotel in the background
Sopot recovered rapidly after the war. Atramway line to Gdańsk was opened, as well as the School of Music, the School of Maritime Trade, a library, and an art gallery. During the city presidency ofJan Kapusta the town opened an annual Arts Festival in 1948. In 1952, the tramways were replaced by a heavy-rail commuter line connecting Gdańsk, Sopot, andGdynia. Although in 1954 the School of Arts was moved to Gdańsk, Sopot remained an important centre of culture, and in 1956 the first Polishjazz festival was held there (until then jazz had been banned by theCommunist authorities). This was the forerunner of the continuing annualJazz Jamboree in Warsaw.
In 1961, theSopot International Song Festival was inaugurated, although it was held in Gdańsk for its first three years – it moved to its permanent venue at Sopot'sForest Opera in 1964. In 1963, the main street of Sopot (Bohaterów Monte Cassino, "the Heroes ofMonte Cassino") was turned into a pedestrian-onlypromenade.
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 town centre was declared a national heritage centre by the government of Poland.
In 1995, the southern bath and sanatoria complex were extended significantly and theSaint Adalbert (in PolishŚw. Wojciech) spring opened two years later, as a result in 1999 Sopot regained its officialspa town status. In 1999,Pope John Paul II visited Sopot, about 800,000 pilgrims attended his mass.[4]
In 2001, Sopot celebrated the 100th anniversary of its city charter.
Sopot is currently undergoing a period of intense development, including the building of a number of five star hotels and spa resorts on the waterfront. The main pedestrianized street, Monte Cassino, has also been extended by diverting traffic underneath it, meaning the whole street is now pedestrianized. Sopot, aside from Warsaw boasts the highest property prices in Poland.
Saint George Church and Saint Adalbert wayside shrine
Old manor houses and villas, including the 18th-centurySierakowski Mansion and Spanish Manor, and the early 20th-centurySopot Belvedere (Sopocki Belwederek), place of stay of various Presidents and Prime Ministers of Poland during their visits to Sopot
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-winningProkom Trefl Sopot. Amateur sports are played by thousands of Sopot citizens, as well as in schools of all levels (elementary, secondary, and university). Sopot held theIAAF World Indoor Championships in2014.
Ogniwo Sopot is a rugby club, founded in 1965. Since the 80s, Ogniwo is one of the most successful Polish rugby teams. They were undefeated since 1989 to 1993, with Edward Hodura as a coach.
^"Główny Urząd Statystyczny" [Central Statistical Office] (in Polish). To search: Select "Miejscowości (SIMC)" tab, select "fragment (min. 3 znaki)" (minimum 3 characters), enter town name in the field below, click "WYSZUKAJ" (Search).
^Lakowski, Richard (2008). "Der Zusammenbruch der deutschen Verteidigung zwischen Ostsee und Karpaten". In Müller, Rolf-Dieter (ed.).Die Militärische Niederwerfung der Wehrmacht. Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Vol. 10/1. München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. pp. 491–681, here: 561.ISBN9783421062376.
^abSylwia Bykowska (2020).The Rehabilitation and Ethnic Vetting of the Polish Population in the Voivodship of Gdańsk after World War II. Peter-Lang-Verlagsgruppe. p. 116.ISBN978-3-631-67940-1.
The list includes the 107 urban municipalities governed by acity mayor (prezydent miasta) instead of a town mayor (burmistrz) ·Cities with powiat rights are initalics · Voivodeship cities are inbold
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