Do it in the Tri-City! Alternative guide - part one
Sopot pier / Fot. Damian Kramski / Agencja Gazeta
Every visitor to the Tri-City has to walk the length of this, the longest wooden pier in Europe. The structure is truly impressive: constructed from thousands of thick logs and tens of thousands of wooden planks, it extends into the waters of the Bay of Gdańsk for exactly 511 metres. The history of the pier is older than the city of Sopot itself: the first wooden, seasonal jetties had been put up since the 1820s, their construction initiated by Jean George Haffner, a doctor in Napoleon's army.
Back then the pier, only 40 metres long but extended more and more each year, was not used for walking but helped in . . . transporting sea water to the shore, to be used for medicinal hydrotherapy. The wooden pier acquired its present form in 1927, to commemorate 25 years of the town's existence.
Nearly every year the pier needs to be repaired, as the wooden elements, especially those closer to the water surface, cannot withstand the winter storms. The pier was particularly damaged after the Second World War and therefore the new authorities reached the decision to dismantle it completely. It was saved by Bolesław Bierut, then First Secretary of KC PZPR (Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party), who opposed the idea.
Sopot pier is a great vantage point, so it might be worth your while to stop for a moment and sit down on one of the many benches. Weather permitting, the pier offers excellent views of lighthouses on the Hel Peninsula or of ships lying at anchor at the roadstead. It is also a good idea to turn your head towards land and take a look at Sopot lighthouse, the Grand Hotel, the cliff in Gdynia or the port in Gdańsk, and try to spot two other Tri-City piers (in Gdańsk and Gdynia). At present, Sopot pier is undergoing a metamorphosis - with a marina being built to accommodate a hundred yachts, which should be up and running as soon as the 2011 summer holidays. The pier itself will gain a harbour master's office and a restaurant with an observation terrace.
www.molo.sopot.pl