Every design for Sopot

Sopot's story begins with a stronghold: a Slavonic Pomeranian trading outpost stood here in the seventh century, long before anyone came for the sea air, and its reconstructed site is now an open-air museum. The village that later gave the town its name was granted to the Cistercians of Oliwa and stayed a fishing village until Gdańsk's leading families began building manor houses here. Count Kajetan Onufry Sierakowski put up the first summer house, a former doctor of Napoleon's army opened a bathing establishment, and the spa took shape.

Sopot lies on the Bay of Gdańsk between Gdańsk to the south-east and Gdynia to the north-west, the smallest of the three Tricity towns. Behind the beach the land climbs quickly into wooded hills, Góra Dostojna is the highest point, and a good part of the town is forest. Molo w Sopocie, the longest wooden pier in Europe, reaches far out into the bay, Krzywy Domek draws the crowds, and Dworek Sierakowskich and Kościół pw. Świętego Jerzego hold on to an older, quieter Sopot.

If you grew up here, this map is a route you know by heart: down through the woods to the beach, out along the pier, and back past the fountain everyone calls the inhalation mushroom.