Sopot - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Name of the city

The name of Sopoth (1283) and Sopot (1291) comes from an old Slavic word which means “source”.

In Poland of pre-war period the names of Sopoty or Copoty (plural in Polish) were usually of use.

History

At the 7th century a Slavic fortress in Poméranie is built. It is a commercial outpost which allows commercial relations extended with at the same time from the areas of the the Vistula located at the south and of the cities beyond the Baltique. With time the importance of the bastion decreases and at the 10th century he is inhabited more only by fishermen before being abandoned. One century later, the place is again populated and two villages are founded with the borders of the current city: Stawowie and Gręzowo. They are mentioned first once in 1186 like having been conceded with the Cistercian abbey of Oliwa. Another of the villages now integrated into Sopot, Świemirowo, is mentioned in 1212 in a document signed by Mściwój I, duke of Gdańsk, which yields it to the monastery of Saint-Norbert in the locality close to Żukowo.

The name of Sopot is mentioned first once in 1283 and indicates all the agglomeration. Qualified village of fishermen it is allotted to Cisterciens. Towards 1316 the abbey acquires all the villages of the surroundings. After the Peace treaty of Toruń of 1466 the agglomeration is incorporated in Poland.

In XVIe century Sopot was a town of water for the inhabitants of Gdańsk. Until the end of the century the nobler families and richest of the city made there build residences. During the negotiations of the Treaty of Oliva the king Jean II Casimir lived in one of them, while the Swedish negotiator Magnus of Gardie resided in another - called since the Swedish Manor.

During the war of succession of Poland, in 1733, the Russian imperial troops besieged the city close to Gdańsk and a year later plundered and burned entirely the village of Sopot. After the end of the war, Sopot was given up and the manors deserted until the middle from the XVIIIe century.

In the 1757 and 1758 majority of the destroyed manors were bought by a family of tycoons poméranien, Przebendowski. The general Jozef Przebendowski bought nine palates with the gardens which surrounded them and in 1786 its widow, Bernardyna Przebendowska (born Kleist), the two last. Sopot was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1772 at the time of the first division of Poland. Following the new laws imposed by king Frederic the Large one, the goods of Church were confiscated by the State. The village was rebuilt and in 1806 the site was sold to a trader of Gdańsk called Carl Christoph Wegner.

In 1819 Wenger in Sopot the first public baths opened and tried to promote among the inhabitants of Danzig the town of water which it had just established, but the company showed a financial failure. However, in 1823 Dr. Jean Georg Haffner, former doctor of the French Army, financed a new balneal complex which became very popular. In the following years Haffner still developed the equipment. In 1824 a sanatorium was opened with the public, as well as a pier of 63 m length, cloakrooms and a park. Haffner died in 1830, but its company was continued by his/her son-in-law, Ernst Adolf Böttcher which continued to develop the place, and in 1842 a new theater and a sanatorium were open. Consequently the coming number of tourists with Sopot each year went up to almost 1.200.

In 1870 Sopot the opening of its first railway line lives: the new rail link between Danzig and Kolberg, prolonged thereafter to Berlin. These good connections increased the popularity of the area and in 1900 the number of tourists had almost reached 12.500 per annum.

In 1873 the village of Sopot became an administrative center of the commune. Soon of other villages were incorporated there and in 1874 the number of inhabitants was assembled to more than 2.800.

At the beginning of the XXe century it was the town of water preferred of the German emperor Guillaume II. At the beginning of the century the city became a tourist place not only for the inhabitants of the city close to Danzig, that for the aristocracy of Berlin, Warsaw and Königsberg. Shortly after the First World War a casino was created in the Large Hotel and was an important financial resource for the treasury of the Free City of Danzig.

In 1877 the autonomous administration of the commune bought the village with the descendants of Doctor Haffner and started to develop it. A second sanatorium was built in 1881 and the pier was prolonged with 85 meters. In 1885 the gas works was built. Two years later came from the courts of tennis and the following year a horse racecourse was opened to the public. Several equipment was built for the inhabitants with residence and either only for the tourists, inter alia two new churches: the Protestant woman (September 17th, 1901) and the catholic (December 21st, 1901).

October 8th, 1901, Guillaume II granted to Sopot the rights of the cities, which made it possible the town of develop even more quickly than before. In 1904 a new sanatorium was open balneologic. In 1907 of new baths in the south of old were built in style Viking. In 1909 a new theater was open in the forest close inside the limits to the city, where today each year the Festival is held of Sopot. In 1912 a third complex of baths was open, sanatoria, hotels and restaurants, attracting even more tourists. Little time before the First World War the city had 17.400 permanent inhabitants and received more than 20.000 tourists each year.

The Treaty of Versailles allotted Sopot to the Free City of Danzig. Thanks to the proximity of the Polish borders and allemandes the economy of the city is restored soon. The casino recently built became one of the primary sources of income for the any free small town. In 1927 the authorities of the city built the Kasino-hotel, one of the most remarkable sites of Sopot today. After the Second world war it was renamed Grand Hotel and is always one of the most luxurious hotels of Poméranie.

From 1922 in the Opera of the Forest a Festival Richard Wagner was held of high-quality so that Sopot was regarded sometimes as the “Bayreuth of North”. In 1928 the pier was prolonged until its current length: 512 meters. It is since the longest pier out of wooden of Europe and one longest in the world. With beginning of the year 30 the city reached the peak of its popularity among the foreign tourists - more than 30.000 came each year (number which does not even include/understand the tourists of Danzig, who spent their holidays there). However, during the Thirties the tension at the Polish border and the rise of the Nazism started to discourage the foreign tourists. In 1938 of the German Nazis of the place reflect fire with the synagog of Sopot.

The Second world war burst on September 1st, 1939. The following day the Free City of Danzig was annexed by the Nazis in Germany and the majority of the Poles, Cachoubes and the Jews which lived there were stopped and expelled. As the war made rage, the tourism industry of the city crumbled. The last Wagner Festival took place in 1942.

The Red Army entered in Sopot on March 23rd, 1945. In 1945 the city lost approximately 10% of its buildings - some during the engagements, but a good number were destroyed by the Soviet soldiers under the influence of alcohol after May 8th, 1945. The Russian soldiers burned and plundered the majority of the buildings close to the pier, including the complex of balneal sanatoria.

In accordance with the Potsdam Conference, Sopot was incorporated at the Polish State of post-war period. The authorities of the voïvodie of Gdańsk resided at it until the end of 1946. The majority of the German inhabitants who had not left the city in front of the advance of the Red Army were soon expelled and replaced well quickly by driven out Poles of the areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

After the Sopot war is restored quickly. A tram line towards Gdańsk was opened, and one created the University of Music, the Maritime National college of business, a library and a gallery of Article Since 1948 (while Jan Kapusta was with the head of the city) the Festival of Arts is held in Sopot. In 1952 the tram lines were replaced by a railway line of suburbs connecting Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia. Although in 1954 the University of the Art schools was moved in Gdansk, Sopot remained an important arts center. In 1956 the first Polish festival of jazz was held there (until this year the jazz was prohibited by the communist authorities); it was the precursor of annual Jamboree of Jazz which is always held in Warsaw. In 1961 the first international Contest of Song was organized in the Opera of the Forest. Two years later the main street of Sopot (Bohaterow Assembles Casino) was transformed into a pedestrian precinct.

New balneal complexes, sanatoria and hotels were open in 1972 and 1975. In 1977 Sopot had approximately 54,500 inhabitants, the most figure of its history. In 1979 the historical center was put under the protection of the State like national heritage. The martial law proclaimed by Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1981 involved one period of economic decline which ended with the fall of the Communist regime in 1989. In 1995 the southern complex of baths and sanatoria knew an important extension and two years later the spring of Adalbert Saint was inaugurated. Thanks to that Sopot could in 1999 find its official statute of town of water. In 2001 Sopot celebrated the 100ème birthday of its urban charter.

Demography

Close cities on the Baltic littoral

Gdańsk (port city and industrial)
Gdynia (port city and industrial)

Communications

Airport nearest: airport of Gdańsk

Twinnings

, to see
, to see

External bonds

Web site of the town of Sopot
regional Gate
Sopot
Old Sopot
Art nouveau in Sopot
virtual Visit of Sopot
Fotos Sopot

Sources

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