Leaky pier, run-down fishing huts and foul-smelling sewage draining straight into the sea. Less than two hundred years ago, that was all that was waiting for daredevils ready to spend their holidays in Sopot.
Fashion for trips to the waters broke out completely unexpectedly. Even at the end of the 18th century, nothing foreshadowed it. The representatives of the elite went to the countryside in the summer to commune with nature and the myth of idyllic, provincial life. Nothing drove them to the sea. Basking up on the beach, let alone throwing yourself into the waves, would be considered the height of extravagance in rich circles.
Twenty years later, the situation was quite different. "Water is for summer what salons are for winter" - began to be said in France in the early nineteenth century. Soon Le Figaro will announce that in the hottest months "only guards and writers are left in Paris." Ladies and gentlemen were to be found not in trendy cafes but on the riviera.
Twenty breathtaking houses…
The entire continent followed the footsteps of the City of Lights. The charming, sleepy seaside settlements were rapidly expanded and plastered with paint. They became tourist 'resorts' overnight , hosting thousands of wealthy vacationers. In the south of Europe, it was fitting to visit Abbations; The popularity of Kołobrzeg and Świnoujście was growing on the Baltic Sea. But nobody even thought about vacation in Sopot. Seemingly, the town had excellent conditions for a career among holiday resorts.
Sopot around 1900 (source:public domain).
It was located just ten kilometers from the border of the cramped, overcrowded Gdańsk, where fifty thousand people dreamed of getting away to a slightly quieter and more picturesque place. Only that Sopot simply was not such a place. At the beginning of the century, it was hard to call anything other than a breathtaking fishing village.
There were 23 houses and only 307 inhabitants. In fact, it didn't even have a commonly accepted name. The Germans called the place "Zoppot", "Zopot", but also Copot. It was even more difficult for Poles to decide on one form. Józef Ignacy Kraszewski wrote about his visit to Sobótka. Publicist Tadeusz Krępowiecki mentioned "Saturday". Ultimately, however, the plural form was adopted for many years. The question "where are you going" had to be answered:to Sopot.
Two tubs and a few buckets…
The first bathing establishment in the seaside settlement was built in 1820. The sanctuary was founded by the owner of the local goods, a certain Wagner. However, the project was not ambitious. Two tubs, into which buckets were brought seawater, heated in the kitchen. That's it. Although the Prussian authorities insisted on the expansion of the tabernacle, Wagner saw no interest in it.
Jean Georges Haffner, a French physician from the Napoleonic army, rightly called the creator of modern Sopot, turned out to be more foreseeable. In 1823 he started building his own spa facility. Real sea baths were still considered an eccentric freak. The man on the level did not go to the beach, but to a special shower cubicle.
Spa house in Sopot. Photo from the end of the 19th century (source:public domain).
Haffner erected six such cabins to which seawater was piped under pressure. In the clock tower, which was the hallmark of the plant, there was also a special heating boiler. Each patient, like in the world's best resorts, could regulate the temperature and the strength of the stream by himself. There was a comfortable couch waiting for him in the cabin, and right outside the door - a bathtub ready at every nod.
It was a bull's eye. Next to the plant, the first spa house in Sopot was quickly built. Haffner also took care of arranging the park and picturesque walking paths. Finally, he was the originator and creator of the first pier in Sopot. The pier was erected in 1827 and measured at that time a not very impressive 31 and a half meters. There was no need for more, because Sopot, in its first tourist years, could not complain about the overcrowding.
Pier in Sopot, photo taken between 1890 and 1900 (source:public domain).
… And this pier!
It was a village that people traveled to to cut themselves off from the daily bustle. One of the first lovers of Sopot was the famous poet and novelist, Narcyza Żmichowska. She mentioned that there was "quiet, free, free time."
For Kraszewski, Sopot was also, above all, a "quiet village". However, more and more tourists came from year to year, and with them - problems grew. There were complaints about the lack of sewage system and the stinking sewage that ran down the rivers straight to the sea.
One of the first fans of Sopot was Narcyza Żmichowska (source:public domain).
Women complained about the pierced pier where the heels of their shoes were stuck in the planks. And all of them, without exception, criticized the poor, cramped Kashubian huts and the terrible journey. Initially, the resort was only accessible by omnibus, over dirt and dust.
Sopot was promoted to a truly European rank only in 1870 with the opening of the railway line. Now the journey from Warsaw took only 16 hours and required - a trifle - four changes. In the second half of the 19th century it was very, very little.
Pier in Sopot around 1900 (author:Snapshots of the Past, license:CC BY-SA 2.0).
Around 1850, the owners of vacation homes were rubbing their hands with joy when a thousand people visited the town throughout the season. On the eve of the outbreak of the First World War, the number of patients already exceeded twenty thousand. Provincial Sopot, with which a French doctor fell in love, imperceptibly went down in history.
From a secluded hole it has grown to become the capital of seaside gambling and a prostitution nest. And only Polish intellectuals suddenly stopped coming here in large numbers. The Republic of Poland had just regained independence and patriotism demanded rest at the Polish seaside. So maybe a kilometer or two west of Sopot…