Sopot
Sopot is located in the North of Poland. It has
wonderful hotels, beaches, pubs, restaurants and forests. Sopot is one of the
best spots for summer holidays in Europe. Sopot is one of the smallest but one
of the most beautiful Polish towns. A big forest surrounds Sopot to the west
and Gdansk Gulf to the east. It takes about four hours from Polish capital
Warsaw by train to Sopot. During summer there are more visitors than citizens
from all parts of Europe. Do not look for other place to make hotel reservation
in Poland.
Sopot is one of the smallest (about 41 thousand
inhabitants in 2002) but one of the most beautiful Polish towns. A big forest
surrounds Sopot to the west and Gdansk Gulf to the east. It takes about three
hours from Polish capital Warsaw by train to Sopot. During summer times it has
more visitors than citizens from all parts of Europe.
More about Sopot.
Sopot as a small town compared to it big
neighbors Gdynia and Gdansk was supposed to stay as a tourist resort, but it
was slowly transformed to important trade center. Recent years allowed Sopot to
integrate fully with the economics structure of modern Europe. As a prelude to
coming changes the main street (Monte Cassino Street) was upgraded to a status
of modern trading center. This is a place where you can buy almost everything
in tens small and big shops. Of course you can find here a place to have a good
lunch or dinner and when the night falls there are a lot of disco clubs to choose
from. A very dense network of banks makes Sopot a very important financial
institution. A very good team of professionals coming from University of law
and economy, which is located in Sopot, makes a very important contribution to
future development of Sopot. As a matter of fact close location of University
of Gdansk and Gdansk Polytechnic contributed to high standard of education of
many people. High percentage of inhabitants has some kind of University
education what is higher than the national average. Good conditions for
investors made Sopot very attractive to invest and over five thousand people
have registered some kind of economic activity. In the future Sopot plans to be
one of the best tourist attractions in Poland.
Oldest history.
Fist document where you can see the name Sopot is
dated on 5th March 1283 when Polish prince Msciwoj II gave Sopot to Cistercian
monastery which was located in Oliwa (today you call this Gdansk Oliwa, which
is part of big city Gdansk just a few miles south of Sopot). Later Sopot
becomes tourist attraction for its big neighbor Gdansk. During Renaissance
Sopot slowly transforms to tourist resort. The turning moment in history was
when Jean Haffner a doctor form napoleon army settled down in Sopot and opened
first baths and building at the same time park and pier.
In short time Sopot was transformed to very
attractive resort, visited by increasing number of visitors from all parts of
Europe. On 8 October 1901 Sopot was promoted to town status by Prussian
government in Berlin. After the conference at Versailles (1918) Sopot, which
many foreign citizens inhabited, went under the jurisdiction of Free Town
Gdansk. After World War II Sopot becomes popular place for artists. Sopot
Gallery, which is located in old casino building, is one of the most important
art centers in Poland. In Forest Opera a festival takes place every year, which
attracts many stars from around the world. There are many places where you can
play tennis, watch horse races and of course you can ride a horse. As a matter
of fact horseraces is the unique place where many state heads used to come to
see it. If you like to gamble you can go to Grand Hotel, which is located near
pier, a place where you can meet almost everybody.
After the World War II Sopot lost some of its
glory mainly because new communist government was not up to its job. But after
the communist system collapsed in 1989, better days came. A lot of money has
been invested in restoration of old buildings some of them from 18th century and
a lot of new structures have been built. The main street Monte Cassino has been
renovated but still more is to come. Future development plans include removing
all residential building surrounding Main Street and changing them into trading
place. Of course Sopot was always known as a tourist attraction and a lot have
been done to renovate and build new hotels forever-increasing number of
tourists. Every year you can see something new and probably in a few years old
Sopot will be only know from pictures.