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Szczecin is one of the exciting European cities that has been influenced culturally and politically for centuries by various countries, not least Poland and Germany. However, the city’s beautiful location on the Oder River close to the sea has always opened the city as a gateway to the world, first and foremost the countries and cities around the Baltic Sea.
Today’s Szczecin, despite its location in the corner of Poland, remains an international city. With the Polish membership of the EU and the Schengen cooperation, the city has once again moved closer to Berlin, which historically is a significant part of the reason for Szczecin’s development as a major port city.
Szczecin, together with Gdynia/Gdansk, is one of the two large modern Polish maritime cities with the special atmosphere it creates. It is also something to look into when visiting the city’s museums or taking a boat trip on the river.
With its open city plan, the Ducal Castle, historic buildings, great churches, impressive monuments, good shopping and proximity to the water, there are an abundance of offers for tourists in Szczecin, and there are great opportunities for interesting day trips outside the city as well. Here you can, for example, visit the old cultural and commercial city of Stargard Szczecinski or go to the Polish Baltic Sea coast with the cities of Świnoujście and Międzyzdroje. There are also only a few minutes to sights in Germany and a bit more to Berlin.
Rynek Sienny is the historically most important square and center of Szczecin’s Old Town. The square was laid out in the 13th century and was, together with Rynek Nowy, Targ Rybny und Plac Orła Białego, the four market squares in the city. In German times, the place was called Heumarkt, since hay was was traded here. However, other parts of the city life took place here as well.
With its recently renovated Gothic and Baroque buildings, the square stands as one of the most beautiful and coziest places in all of Szczecin. The atmosphere is wonderful and there are a few side streets, which are also beautifully restored and partly built up with preserved houses from the city’s long history. There are also buildings that no longer stand. There was, for example, a parish church on the square until 1811, when a fire destroyed the now former St. Nicholas Church.
At Rynek Sienny you can see the city’s old medieval town hall, which was built in Gothic style in the 15th century. In 1677, the Swedes rebuilt it into the then more modern Baroque style. The building was Szczecin’s town hall until 1879, and it also housed the city’s stock exchange. The former town hall building was damaged during World War II, and in the following years it was rebuilt in primarily Gothic and Renaissance styles.
Today, you can enjoy the good atmosphere of the old market square from cafes and restaurants, and you can also visit the Muzeum Historii Szczecina, which is a city history museum. The museum is located in the rebuilt town hall, and here you can see exhibitions about Szczecin’s history and culture, and there are archaeological finds and much more in the exhibitions.
Bazylika Archikatedralna św Jakuba is the great cathedral of Szczecin, an impressive Gothic structure built during the 13th-15th centuries. The church was said to have been built by the town’s citizens, who were inspired by Lübeck’s great Marienkirche, which was a unique monument in its time. It was Jakob Beringer from Bamberg, who lived in Stettin, who built the original Jakobikirche.
In 1237, Duke Barnim I designated the Jakobikirche as the church for the town’s Protestant congregation, while the Slavic inhabitants were assigned the Petrikirche. After the Reformation, the church became the parish church for the Lutheran congregation, and after the demolition of the city’s Marienkirche in 1831, the Jakobikirche became the most important church in Stettin.
Jakobikirche was built as a late Gothic hall church and originally had two towers. They were replaced by a central tower between 1456 and 1503, and on this tower there was a spire. In the church, there was a rich decoration in the interior, which had 52 altars in the Middle Ages. However, much of this was lost in 1677 when the building was partially destroyed during a siege of Stettin.
Both in 1894 and especially during the Second World War, the large church was destroyed once again. The tower collapsed both times, and a hit in August 1944 left large parts of the church in ruins. After World War II, Jakobikirche’s time as a Protestant church ended when the Polish Catholic Church took over the ruins in 1945, which were rebuilt until 1971.
Today, the impressive church has been rebuilt and is active as the Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of Szczecin-Kamień Pomorski. A museum of church art has also been set up here. The museum concentrates on the history of Christianity in Western Pomerania. Of particular interest, you can see the bell found outside the adjoining parsonage. It dates from 1681.
The Philharmonic in Szczecin is one of the great cultural institutions and modern architectural sights in the northwestern Polish city. The Philharmonic was established in 1948, which was a few years after German Stettin had become Polish Szczecin. The first concert was held on October 25, 1948, and until 2014 the city’s large town hall on Plac Armii Krajowej was used as the venue.
In 2014, the new and current building was inaugurated, and it stands as one of Szczecin’s most distinctive constructions in modern contemporary design. It was Studio Barozzi Veiga from Barcelona who designed the Philharmonic, which has received awards for its architecture. The first concert was held on 14 September 2014 in the white building, which gives the illusion of countless gabled houses, and which has an exciting interior.
The National Museum in Szczecin is housed in a mansion built in Baroque style by the architect G.C. Wallrave in the years 1726-1727. The Pomeranian Landtag was originally located here. In 1885-1888 a major rebuilding took place, and in 1927 the provincial government moved to a new building. In connection, the national museum was established here, and in the 1930s the building was changed for exhibition purposes and the facade returned to the earlier Baroque style.
The museum portrays the history of western Pomerania in an exciting way through a series of permanent exhibitions about old and recent times. Among other things, you can see paintings, sculptures, old silver finds, Gothic art from the 14th century and Polish art from the 19th century.
The castle of the Pomeranian dukes is located above the city of Szczecin and with the Oder river below the residence. It has been here since the first half of the 12th century, although it was not until 1346 during the rule of Barnim III that larger buildings were erected at the complex.
The castle was partially destroyed in 1428, but subsequently expanded several times by, among others, Boguslaw X and Barnim XI. In 1575-1577, Duke Jan Frederik expanded and changed the castle to the Renaissance style of the time. The last major extension is the current museum wing, which was built in 1616-1619 during Dukes Philip II and Franz I.
Throughout the 19th century, the castle was brutally converted into offices, not least, and it destroyed a large part of the details and furnishings from the Renaissance, but from 1902 there was a return to the previous style. After the Second World War and until the 1980s, the castle was mainly rebuilt in the design it had in the late 16th century.
There is a museum at the castle, where you can see a number of objects and collections from history, including household goods, clocks and the dukes’ sarcophagi. And of course you can enjoy the interior of the castle as well when visiting.
In addition, there is a regional cultural centre, an opera house, the headquarters of the university and other cultural institutions. In the summer, the castle yard is also used for concerts. Immediately to the west of the main building is the dukes’ stable building, which was built partly in wood around 1600.
Over the centuries, Szczecin has been one of the important cities around the Baltic Sea, starting with with its role as Berlin’s port city as well as the main port of the region, and therefore Szczecin has played a decisive role in the region’s development and maritime history.
The city’s maritime museum was built by Wilhelm Meyer Schwartau and opened in 1913. The museum provides a general maritime description of the area, concentrating on the influence of the Slavic people and the development of Baltic Sea shipping. In addition to the exhibition on maritime history, the museum contains a number of works of art from, for example, Africa and the Baltic Sea area.
From the large terrace facilities outside the building, there is a fine view to the Oder river and to part of the city’s large harbor facilities. The area is great for a stroll.
Wały Chrobrego is a promenade and area located in central Szczecin along the Oder River. The wharf is an excellent place for a stroll with good views of the river and parts of the city harbour, and along the promenade you can see one of Szczecin’s most famous and characteristic architectural ensembles.
The history of the area goes back to the time immediately after the Stockholm Agreements in 1720, when the German Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm I got Szczecin and the Pomeranian area back from Sweden. On that occasion, the construction of several forts was initiated, and they were to be located along the Oder to protect the harbor entrance. Fort Leopold was built on this site.
When the city government of Szczecin decided to dismantle the city’s defenses in 1873, the area along the Oder was cleared, and this created space for the construction of the string of large and impressive buildings that can be seen today. The buildings were constructed from 1900 to 1914, and at that time the promenade was called Hakenterrasse, named after the city’s Lord Mayor Hermann Haken.
The center of the facility with the promenade became a large viewing terrace, from which you could enjoy a panoramic view of the Oder. The terrace was made of sandstone blocks with a plateau at the top and a fountain at the bottom. There are coats of arms and sculptures carved into the stones, and on each side there is a lighthouse stylized as lamps.
On the semicircle of the plateau stands a sculpture showing Hercules’ fight against Nessus. The sculpture was made by Karl Ludwig Manzel in 1913. On each side of the semicircle there is a pavilion, and behind the entire facility you can see the building that houses the Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie, Szczecin’s national museum.
Centrum Dialogu Przełomy is one of Szczecin’s newest major facilities, and it is also one of the most notable, even if it doesn’t look like much in the streetscape. The facility is a museum that is built underground, and the individual exhibition rooms are very interestingly equipped.
The center opened in 2016 after construction started in 2012. It opened on Plac Solidarności, which is a square named after the trade union movement Solidarity, which, led by Lech Walesa, started the rebellion that led to the upheaval from communism to democracy in the 1980s. The museum depicts the recent history of Szczecin, which is the one after 1945.
There used to be a number of beautiful buildings at the square, which were destroyed during the battles of World War II. After clean-up, the square was left as an open and green area, which has now been developed, but at the same time preserved as a square. It was here that many of the residents’ protests in the communist era took place.
At the Dialogue Center and in the south-eastern area of the square, you can see the Angel of Freedom/Anioła Wolności, an iron sculpture commemorating the victims of December 1970, who fell during popular protests in the cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Elbląg and Szczecin.
Brama Portova is Szcezcin’s harbor gate, which was previously called both Brandenburger Tor and Berliner Tor when the city was German. The building was constructed 1725-1740, which was after the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720. By it, Friedrich Wilhelm I reacquired parts of Western Pomerania, which had been given to Sweden at the end of the Thirty Years’ War by the Peace of Westphalia.
As a reminder of the return of the Duchy of Stettin, Friedrich Wilhelm I had the city’s fortress reconstructed, including the magnificent gate, which was built in Baroque style by Gerhard Cornelius von Wallrave. The gate’s opulent ornamentation was created by the sculptors Damart and Meyer at the same time as the construction.
On the gate, immediately above the historical review itself, there is a representation of the goddess of victory playing a fanfare in honor of German Friedrich Wilhelm I. At the top, you can see a sculpture of the Oder river god Viadrus and a relief of Szczecin.
Czerwony Ratusz is Szczecin’s large red town hall building, which was built in noble Pomeranian Neo-Gothic style in the years 1875-1879. From the time it was built, the city’s magistrate and city council were located here, while today there are primarily maritime-related organizations and offices in the beautiful building.
The town hall was also called Neue Rathaus Stettin because it was built as a replacement for the city’s old town hall on the Heumarkt, which had become too small for the growing port city. It was built picturesquely situated on a rampart, and it still occupies a prominent place in the modern Polish city.
Above the main entrance you can see four allegorical figures that symbolize industry, agriculture, shipping and science respectively. The figures stand almost like church figures in column niches. In addition, there are friezes and acanthus on the facades, which are typical features from the time of construction.
Kościół św. Jana Ewangelisty is one of Szczecin’s old Gothic churches. It was founded after 1240, when Franciscan monks arrived to the city. Duke Barnim I founded both a monastery and a church for the monks, and the first facility was a wooden construction. St. John’s Church was built in the south-eastern part of Szczecin’s old town, and in connection with the construction of city walls around the city, the church was rebuilt.
It was at the beginning of the 14th century, and it was at the time when the current brick Gothic building was erected. The interior of the church was built with beautiful vaults, and the church was expanded with some side chapels in the 15th century. The Franciscan order had to leave Stettin in 1525 as part of the Reformation, and the monastery was then set up as a place of education, while the church became Protestant.
In 1678, St. John’s Church was converted into a garrison church, which brought some changes to it. So did Napoleon’s use of the church as a warehouse and granary from 1806 to 1813. After the French era, the old Franciscan monastery was used as building material for a house, while the church fell into disrepair. A major renovation was carried out in 1929-1930.
Kościół św. Jana Ewangelisty survived the Second World War relatively unscathed, and in the following decades it was continuously restored, so that its beautiful interior, including fine brickwork and some paintings, has been preserved. In the 1980s, new adjacent buildings were built, but otherwise the church’s surroundings have changed with the destruction of the Second World War, which removed the dense street atmosphere around the building.
The large, circular Grunwald Square is the center of the so-called Parisian Szczecin. In this part of the city, there are distinguished buildings around the many squares and avenues that were laid out in the decades before and after 1900. Following examples from Paris, a total of eight streets radiate from Plac Grunwaldzki, thereby forming a kind of center in the neighborhood.
Fort Wilhelm used to be located in this area, and when it was closed down, there was room for new facilities. The square was established with the name Westend Kirchplatz, and from 1877 it was called Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz, before the Poles renamed the square in 1945 and named it after the Battle of Tannenberg, which is called Grunwald in Polish.
In the first part of the 20th century, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz was developed with fine residential properties, and trams ran around and through the square. Part of the buildings were destroyed during the Second World War, and therefore you can see modern buildings in the north-eastern part, while the beautiful old buildings stand in the south-western part.
The King’s Gate is part of the old Prussian fortifications that were built around 18th-century Stettin. The gate was constructed in Baroque style during the rule of Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm I in the years 1725-1727. The reason was that Sweden ceded parts of Pomerania including Stettin to Prussia with the Stockholm Agreement in 1720.
The beautiful gate was built to commemorate Stettin’s return to Prussia, and the gate was called Anklamer Tor. The architect was Gerhard Cornelius von Wallrave, and until the 19th century the gate was called Anklamer Tor, after which it was called Königstor. The gate marked the northernmost boundary of the old town.
The King’s Gate today stands in the middle of modern traffic arteries, which were built in the 1980s. In front of the gate, to the southwest, you can see Szczecin’s large sundial, Zegar Słoneczny, which was installed in 2012.
Baszta Panieńską or Maiden’s Tower is a tower that stands as the only surviving one of Szczecin’s medieval fortifications. The city’s old town was formerly surrounded by a city wall, which with its gates and towers formed an important part of the city’s defenses. The wall measured 2,510 meters in its time.
The Maiden’s Tower was built at the beginning of the 14th century and has had various purposes over time, including as a prison. The tower was called Frauenturm in Szczecin’s German times, and it got its name from the Frauentor gate, which, together with Mühlentor, Heiligegeisttor and Passauer Tor, were the city’s main gates.
Stettin’s walls and fortifications were demolished in the first half of the 18th century, but the Maiden Tower survived and was later rebuilt. The tower was partially destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in 1964. The distinctive tower stands today as one of Szczecin’s landmarks.
Kościół Garnizonowy św. Wojciecha is a church named after Bishop Vojtěch Adalbert of Prague, who was devoted to Christianize the territories under the Baltic Germans, which included Pomerania with present-day Szczecin. However, the church was inaugurated with the name Bugenhagenkirche, which was a Protestant church on Hohenzollernplatz.
The church was built by the architect Jürgen Kröger from Berlin in the years 1906-1909 in a mainly neo-Gothic style, although neo-romantic elements were incorporated. The tower has a height of 65.5 metres. In the interior of the church room you can see paintings, the coat of arms of the northwestern Polish city and window mosaics. The window above the altar shows the death of Bishop Vojtěch Adalbert.
There is a small park east of the garrison church, and here you can see a bust of the writer Kornel Ujejski, who is considered the last of the great Polish poets of the Romantic period. The monument was erected in the former Polish and now Ukrainian city of Lvov in 1901 and brought to Szczecin and inaugurated in its current position in 1957.
Urząd Miasta is one of the largest buildings in Szczecin, and the vast complex facilitates functions as the city’s town hall. The construction was adopted by the Pomeranian Parliament in 1921, when the so-called Landtag decided to erect the Landeshaus as the political and administrative center of German Pomerania.
The facility was conceived as a complex of administrative buildings that lay as a natural extension of the almost Parisian town plan northwest of the old town and with scenic surroundings, which can be seen north of the town hall. The land was acquired and construction started on 5 June 1924 to designs by the engineer Georg Steinmetz.
After being the Pomeranian Landeshaus, the NSDAP authorities had their seat here in the years 1933-1945. During the Polish era, the building complex was home to various authorities until it was given the status of a town hall in 1990. The buildings were originally covered with green plaster and the place was called the Spinach Palace. After a renovation in 2012-2017, the town hall got its green color back.
Bulwary Szczecińskie is a promenade located along the eastern bank of the Oder as it flows through the center of Szczecin. You can walk along the promenade opposite the old town between the Most Długi and Most Łabudy bridges, and from the promenade there is a nice view to the river and the Szczecin skyline.
There are also a few sights along Bulwary Szczecińskie. To the southwest at Most Długi you can see the large building Urząd Celny, which was constructed as Stettin’s customs building 1905-1908 in German Renaissance architecture. If you continue to the northeast, you can see the mast of the ship S/S Kapitan K. Maciejewicz. The mast dates from 1929, and it was erected as a maritime monument in 1989.
Międzyzdroje is a seaside resort located on the north coast of the island of Wolin, and it is also called the Pearl of the Baltic Sea. The city is a wonderful place to throw yourself in the waves at the city’s long sandy beach. And the ridge Pasmo Wolińskie stands as a backdrop just behind the city reaching a height of 116 meters a little east of Międzyzdroje.
The first bathing huts were erected in 1835, and since then much has been built in the beautiful architectural style typical of the area along the Baltic Sea coast. The center of summer life is the beach promenade and the area around the pier, which extends 395 meters into the sea.
Among other things, you can see a museum for the island of Wolin National Park, Muzeum Przyrodnicze (ul. Niepodległości 3a). The beautiful nature of the place is described in the museum, and you can see, for example, stuffed animals from the area, and in the park itself there is an enclosure with bison and a beautiful nature.
Świnoujście is an old seaside resort located north of the city of Szczecin on the Baltic Sea coast. The area of the city facing the Baltic Sea in particular is lovely with its fashionable architecture and recreational opportunities along the water and in the spas.
In addition to the long sandy beaches and the recreation opportunities in this area, there are some lovely parks, a fishing museum, shopping streets and various attractions in the city center, where everything is within walking distance..
Immediately west of Świnoujście, 2 km from the center, is the pedestrian border with Germany. Trains depart from the city’s western station for the German Baltic seaside resorts such as Ahlbeck and Heeringsdorf, which are not far away. That way you can combine the trip to Świnoujście with a trip to Germany.
Stargard Szczecinski is one of West Pomerania’s oldest towns. It has been dated to the 700-800s. A castle was built relatively quickly on the nearby river, Ina, to defend the city from its central location as a trade center between the cities of Sanok and Wolin, as well as between present day Szczecin and Kołobrzeg.
In the middle of the 13th century, Stargard was granted city rights by Duke Barnim I, and with its positive trade development, the city became a member of the Hanseatic League. At the end of the 13th century, city walls were built around both the fort and the town. Throughout the 17th century, Stargard was partially destroyed by the wars against the Swedes. Reconstruction started only slowly because there were still movements of Swedish, Prussian and Russian troops in the area.
With industrialization and the coming of the railway in 1846, with lines to Szczecin and Berlin and later also to Poznan and Koszalin, the city again experienced a period of economic growth. It lasted until World War II, when the city housed a military production that resulted in an almost total destruction of the city before the end of the war. Despite this, there are a number of preserved sights as well as beautifully restored historic houses and buildings.
Ueckermünde is a harbor town at the mouth of the river Uecker, and the combination of the maritime with a very pleasant town center makes a trip here a pleasant experience in northeastern Germany.
Historically, Ueckermünde was first mentioned in 1178 and it was a fishing town. In the following centuries, the city grew due to trade and its favorable location on the Uecker, and several larger buildings were constructed like the fortified castle that the dukes of Pomerania had built, churches and fortifications.
Today, many people visit Ueckermünde to take a walk around the charming harbor along the Uecker (Altes Bollwerk, Neues Bollwerk), which is close to the old town. Here is a market and several different options for sailing trips or visits to ships during the season.
However, you should include a trip in the city center northwest of the harbour. Here you can see the preserved parts of the ducal palace (Am Rathaus) from the 1540s, which is today the seat of the city’s administration, and the Marienkirche church (Ueckerstraße 86), which is particularly worth seeing.
Marienkirche in its current version was built in the years 1752-1766 in baroque and rococo architecture; however, with a neo-Gothic tower from 1866. It is the interior of the church that is something special. The interior with balconies and the painted flat wooden ceiling create a special space and atmosphere.
Finally, you can walk about a hundred meters further north-west from the church, where the town square named Markt is located. Markt is surrounded by a number of fine buildings, and there is outdoor seating at the square during the season and a fountain.
The Historisch-Technisches Museum Peenemünde is a museum that was established in 1991 in the former power plant building of the city of Peenemünde. The museum’s primary focus is the German rocket tests and construction that took place around Peenemünde in the period 1936-1945. It was here that Wernher von Braun headed the Nazi rocket program, probably best known for the V1 and V2 rockets.
Wernher von Braun experimented with rockets for many years, and after the end of World War II he continued to work for the United States. His efforts and knowledge ended up being the Saturn V rockets that carried American astronauts into space and to the Moon.
The test facilities at Peenemünde were made possible in 1936 when the Ministry of Aviation in Germany bought the northern part of the island of Usedom from the town of Wolgast for 750,000 reichsmarks. After this, an extensive complex of buildings was built, where rockets and so on were tested. Peenemünde was bombed several times during World War II, with the first raid on the 17th and 18th August 1943.
At the museum, there are also other depictions and objects exhibited than von Braun’s rockets. These include, for example, a corvette from the GDR’s Volksmarine, Russian MIG aircraft and railway equipment. All in all, the place is an experience for both those interested in history and technology.
Wiosenna 32
gryf.galeria-carrefour.pl
Mieszka I 73
carrefour.pl
Wyzwolenia
galaxy-centrum.pl
aleja Niepodległości 36
galeria-kaskada.pl
Ku Słońcu 67
geant.pl
Ul. Struga 42
outletpark.eu
Milczańska 31
tesco.pl
Aleja Wyzwolenia, aleja Niepodległości.
Centrum Wodne Laguna
Gryfino, 25 km/15 mi S
cwlaguna.pl
Wały Chrobrego/Dworzec Morski
Ostsee Therme Badeparadies
Lindenstraße 60, 17419 Heringsdorf, Germany
110 km/68 mi N, Germany
ostsee-therme-usedom.de
Muzeum Morskie
Wały Chrobrego
muzeum.szczecin.pl
Woliński Park Narodowy
Wolin, 90 km/55 mi N
wolinpn.pl
The area around present-day Szczecin is believed to be inhabited by the Germanic rugians, who came from southwestern Norway around the year 100. The rugies lived here for several centuries before moving south to the Danube area in the 400s.
The town of Szczecin dates back to the 7th century, when Slavic tribes settled on the present castle mound on the river Oder. It was a smaller settlement where fishermen, craftsmen and traders settled. There was not much growth and the city continued to be just a smaller village for the following centuries.
Settlement Stetinum was, until the beginning of the 12th century, a small town, shaded by the nearby Wolin, whose significance declined at this time. This led to a large growth in Stetinum, which grew to about 5,000 inhabitants. The city had quickly become one of the most important on the southern Baltic coast.
In the winter of 1121-1122, the area was conquered by the Polish king Boleslaw III, and he let the inhabitants of Stetinum Christians in 1124; a few years later, the first Christian church could be put into service.
Poland was a kingdom, but at the same time sat a Duke of Stetinum, Wartislaw I, who extended the territory of the Duchy to the west, so that it would form the later Pomeranian territory. Wartislaw I was the first duke of the duchy dynasty, who for centuries sat on the throne of Pomerania and Szczecin, which has since maintained its position as the Pomeranian capital. However, supremacy over the city and the region has shifted several times; for example, Stetinum became subordinate to the German-Roman Empire in 1187.
From the decades around the year 1200, the dukes of the city invited Germans to the city and the area to expand it, and in 1237 the German minority settled away from the Slavic majority. This was done by Duke Barnim, who also introduced market town rights, following the example of Magdeburg in 1243. The rights introduced significant new economic opportunities for the city and for the citizens.
The city’s position by the sea created a very large trade with other countries and cities along the Baltic Sea, and Szczecin gained membership in the Hanseatic League in 1278. Hansen brought new growth in many cities, as did Szczecin. Thus, the first centuries of the city’s history were a long period of flourishing and growth in both the city and the duchy.
Trade in grain, herring and salt was not least what had made Szczecin rich and significant. The upland was large and not only Pomerania, but also Brandenburg and the Greater Poland.
Other cities also grew these years, and they too wanted part of the lucrative trade. Szczecin was therefore increasingly waging trade wars against cities such as Greifenberg and Stargard, now called Gryfino and Stargard Szczeciński, and there was also a tariff war with Frankfurt an der Oder.
The 16th century was a time of decline for Szczecin, with some of the exports and trade in grain slipping into the city. At the same time, the market for herring declined significantly, and it also led to declines in the economy of the city, which might otherwise have erected fine churches and other buildings during the Hanseatic centuries.
Other things also happened in Szczecin in the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation reached the city in 1534, and in 1570 the peace in Stettin was concluded as the end of the Seven Years’ War, which had raged since 1563 between Denmark-Norway and Sweden.
The Thirty Years War in the years 1618-1648 became a turning point for Szczecin. In 1630, Sweden conquered the city and the area and maintained military control of the duchy.
The last Duke of the Gryfici dynasty, Boguslav XIV, died in 1637, and troops from the German-Roman Empire invaded Pumen to secure Brandenburg’s succession to the Duke Throne. However, the Swedes fought back the attack and maintained their position in the region.
The Thirty Years War ended with the Westphalian Peace in 1648, and with that Sweden achieved large concessions in the North German area. Sweden received, among others, Forpomerania, Rügen and the mouth of Oder; however, the areas remained the German rule. The prince of Brandenburg got the other part of Pomerania, and thus Szczecin’s former territory was divided into two.
With the Szczecin Treaty in 1653, the border between Brandenburg and Szczecin was established, and the Swedish king became Duke of Pomerania. The time during the Swedes did not last long, for as early as 1713 a new era began in the city’s development.
In 1713, Szczecin was conquered by the Prussian Kingdom, and the city quickly became important to Prussia as a garrison town and a major trading town on the Baltic Sea. Prussia had gone into the city to monitor an agreed ceasefire, but they remained in the city, which formally became Prussian in 1720.
Prussia expanded Szczecin as the state’s most important port city. They built a large fort in and around the city, and by trade the waterway to Swinoujscie was opened; it created the breeding ground for a greater development of shipping. It was in 1731, the river Swine was redone, and in 1739 the first port facilities were built in the coastal town of Swinemünde; today’s Świnoujście.
Szczecin’s location also created a large transit trade of Polish goods that were sailed along the Oder River and other waterways from, among others, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Poznan to Berlin and Magdeburg. The traffic created a great economic growth in Szczecin.
The 19th century meant a new development for Szczecin’s economy. Major changes were made to Prussia’s administrative systems, such as the dismantling of a number of tariff barriers. At the same time, other rules for the industry were significantly relaxed. It stimulated growth in the whole area and thus also in Szczecin, whose position as a leading trading town was merely expanded. In terms of population, there were around 6,000 inhabitants living in 1720, and by the beginning of the 19th century it was the place for over 20,000.
Szczecin was within Prussia’s port of Berlin, and in 1843 a railway was constructed between the two cities. Shortly after, the railway was extended to Stargard Szczecinski and on to Poznan and Wroclaw. Szczecin was centrally located on the railway, and the ongoing industrialization in the present Polish territories provided an even greater basis for Szczecin’s success as a trading town. The city became even more attractive with the lapse of tax on goods in 1857.
The mid-19th century was also the time for the start of a major industrialization of the city. In 1851, two engineers from Hamburg founded a shipyard and machine factories in the suburb of Drzetowo. Six years after its founding, the shipyard became the steel shipyard Vulcan, which became Germany’s leader until the beginning of the 20th century. The yard and the city’s many new industries, in virtually all industrial directions, created a continued good economy in the port city.
In 1898, German Emperor Wilhelm II had opened Stettin’s new free port, which gave a good start to the new century, which was to be the last under German rule. In the year 1900 and again in 1911, several suburbs became well under Stettin, which was rapidly developing.
In 1913, the canal between Szczecin and Berlin was opened, and it meant further transport through the city, which continued as a hub until World War II. However, the aftermath of the First World War could be felt in Germany and also in Stettin. There had been downturns, and the changed financial situation, for example, caused the Vulcan shipyard to turn the key in 1928.
In 1933, there were 272,000 people living in Stettin, which again grew in 1939. Here, several suburbs were added under Stettin, which became Germany’s third largest area at the time. 1939 was also the year when some Baltic Germans came to the port of Stettin. With the German-Soviet agreement on the Baltic, some Germans were resettled in several places in Germany, and part of them came sailing to Stettin’s port on that road.
World War II also started in 1939, and the war quickly reached Stettin as an important German port city. The first bombing of the city took place in 1940, but these did not do any major damage to those that occurred later in the war.
In 1943, and especially in 1944, the bombings escalated, and before the end of the war, the port and about 90% of the old town were crushed. The fighting for the city lasted until the end of World War II, and after German surrender of the city, Soviet troops were able to capture Stettin without a fight on April 26, 1945.
After the war ended, the Soviet authorities deployed a communist-oriented German mayor, and the German-controlled time in the ruined port city lasted for the following months.
After World War II, Szczecin was to be integrated into Poland, which was given authority over the city and the area on July 5, 1945. Here the first Polish mayor was deployed, and on September 21 of that year the new Polish-German border was drawn. Before this, some 80,000 Germans and 6,000 Poles had lived in Szczecin. The Germans left, and by the end of the following year more than 100,000 Poles lived in the city.
The task was great for Poland, and in addition to a reconstruction, Szczecin was to retain its importance as one of the most important port cities on the Baltic Sea. It succeeded, and this was not least due to the shipment of Polish goods from Silesia’s significant industries.
Decades after the war, Szczecin was not rebuilt to the same extent as other Polish major cities. A few larger buildings such as the old duchy castle and some medieval churches were rebuilt, but the city’s expression became a mixture of modern Poland with wide boulevards, green areas and in the suburbs large new residential areas for the many Polish migrants and a city center with the contours of the old German trading town.
Throughout the decades of communism in Poland, numerous educational establishments were established in Szczecin, which were also industrialized; among other things, a large shipyard was built in the city.
With Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004 and later accession to the Schengen cooperation, the borders are fully opened and Szczecin on the border between Poland and Germany is once again truly international and the unifying city for the entire region in the area. With over 400,000 inhabitants, Szczecin is also the region’s largest city and thus the natural center.
Szczecin, Poland
Overview of Szczecin
Szczecin is one of the exciting European cities that has been influenced culturally and politically for centuries by various countries, not least Poland and Germany. However, the city’s beautiful location on the Oder River close to the sea has always opened the city as a gateway to the world, first and foremost the countries and cities around the Baltic Sea.
Today’s Szczecin, despite its location in the corner of Poland, remains an international city. With the Polish membership of the EU and the Schengen cooperation, the city has once again moved closer to Berlin, which historically is a significant part of the reason for Szczecin’s development as a major port city.
Szczecin, together with Gdynia/Gdansk, is one of the two large modern Polish maritime cities with the special atmosphere it creates. It is also something to look into when visiting the city’s museums or taking a boat trip on the river.
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Wały Chrobrego is a promenade and area located in central Szczecin along the Oder River. The wharf is an excellent place for a stroll with good views of the river and parts of the city harbour, and along the promenade you can see one of Szczecin’s most famous and characteristic architectural ensembles.
The history of the area goes back to the time immediately after the Stockholm Agreements in 1720, when the German Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm I got Szczecin and the Pomeranian area back from Sweden. On that occasion, the construction of several forts was initiated, and they were to be located along the Oder to protect the harbor entrance. Fort Leopold was built on this site.
When the city government of Szczecin decided to dismantle the city’s defenses in 1873, the area along the Oder was cleared, and this created space for the construction of the string of large and impressive buildings that can be seen today. The buildings were constructed from 1900 to 1914, and at that time the promenade was called Hakenterrasse, named after the city’s Lord Mayor Hermann Haken.
The center of the facility with the promenade became a large viewing terrace, from which you could enjoy a panoramic view of the Oder. The terrace was made of sandstone blocks with a plateau at the top and a fountain at the bottom. There are coats of arms and sculptures carved into the stones, and on each side there is a lighthouse stylized as lamps.
On the semicircle of the plateau stands a sculpture showing Hercules’ fight against Nessus. The sculpture was made by Karl Ludwig Manzel in 1913. On each side of the semicircle there is a pavilion, and behind the entire facility you can see the building that houses the Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie, Szczecin’s national museum.
Centrum Dialogu Przełomy is one of Szczecin’s newest major facilities, and it is also one of the most notable, even if it doesn’t look like much in the streetscape. The facility is a museum that is built underground, and the individual exhibition rooms are very interestingly equipped.
The center opened in 2016 after construction started in 2012. It opened on Plac Solidarności, which is a square named after the trade union movement Solidarity, which, led by Lech Walesa, started the rebellion that led to the upheaval from communism to democracy in the 1980s. The museum depicts the recent history of Szczecin, which is the one after 1945.
There used to be a number of beautiful buildings at the square, which were destroyed during the battles of World War II. After clean-up, the square was left as an open and green area, which has now been developed, but at the same time preserved as a square. It was here that many of the residents’ protests in the communist era took place.
At the Dialogue Center and in the south-eastern area of the square, you can see the Angel of Freedom/Anioła Wolności, an iron sculpture commemorating the victims of December 1970, who fell during popular protests in the cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Elbląg and Szczecin.
Brama Portova is Szcezcin’s harbor gate, which was previously called both Brandenburger Tor and Berliner Tor when the city was German. The building was constructed 1725-1740, which was after the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720. By it, Friedrich Wilhelm I reacquired parts of Western Pomerania, which had been given to Sweden at the end of the Thirty Years’ War by the Peace of Westphalia.
As a reminder of the return of the Duchy of Stettin, Friedrich Wilhelm I had the city’s fortress reconstructed, including the magnificent gate, which was built in Baroque style by Gerhard Cornelius von Wallrave. The gate’s opulent ornamentation was created by the sculptors Damart and Meyer at the same time as the construction.
On the gate, immediately above the historical review itself, there is a representation of the goddess of victory playing a fanfare in honor of German Friedrich Wilhelm I. At the top, you can see a sculpture of the Oder river god Viadrus and a relief of Szczecin.
Czerwony Ratusz is Szczecin’s large red town hall building, which was built in noble Pomeranian Neo-Gothic style in the years 1875-1879. From the time it was built, the city’s magistrate and city council were located here, while today there are primarily maritime-related organizations and offices in the beautiful building.
The town hall was also called Neue Rathaus Stettin because it was built as a replacement for the city’s old town hall on the Heumarkt, which had become too small for the growing port city. It was built picturesquely situated on a rampart, and it still occupies a prominent place in the modern Polish city.
Above the main entrance you can see four allegorical figures that symbolize industry, agriculture, shipping and science respectively. The figures stand almost like church figures in column niches. In addition, there are friezes and acanthus on the facades, which are typical features from the time of construction.
Kościół św. Jana Ewangelisty is one of Szczecin’s old Gothic churches. It was founded after 1240, when Franciscan monks arrived to the city. Duke Barnim I founded both a monastery and a church for the monks, and the first facility was a wooden construction. St. John’s Church was built in the south-eastern part of Szczecin’s old town, and in connection with the construction of city walls around the city, the church was rebuilt.
It was at the beginning of the 14th century, and it was at the time when the current brick Gothic building was erected. The interior of the church was built with beautiful vaults, and the church was expanded with some side chapels in the 15th century. The Franciscan order had to leave Stettin in 1525 as part of the Reformation, and the monastery was then set up as a place of education, while the church became Protestant.
In 1678, St. John’s Church was converted into a garrison church, which brought some changes to it. So did Napoleon’s use of the church as a warehouse and granary from 1806 to 1813. After the French era, the old Franciscan monastery was used as building material for a house, while the church fell into disrepair. A major renovation was carried out in 1929-1930.
Kościół św. Jana Ewangelisty survived the Second World War relatively unscathed, and in the following decades it was continuously restored, so that its beautiful interior, including fine brickwork and some paintings, has been preserved. In the 1980s, new adjacent buildings were built, but otherwise the church’s surroundings have changed with the destruction of the Second World War, which removed the dense street atmosphere around the building.
The large, circular Grunwald Square is the center of the so-called Parisian Szczecin. In this part of the city, there are distinguished buildings around the many squares and avenues that were laid out in the decades before and after 1900. Following examples from Paris, a total of eight streets radiate from Plac Grunwaldzki, thereby forming a kind of center in the neighborhood.
Fort Wilhelm used to be located in this area, and when it was closed down, there was room for new facilities. The square was established with the name Westend Kirchplatz, and from 1877 it was called Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz, before the Poles renamed the square in 1945 and named it after the Battle of Tannenberg, which is called Grunwald in Polish.
In the first part of the 20th century, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz was developed with fine residential properties, and trams ran around and through the square. Part of the buildings were destroyed during the Second World War, and therefore you can see modern buildings in the north-eastern part, while the beautiful old buildings stand in the south-western part.
The King’s Gate is part of the old Prussian fortifications that were built around 18th-century Stettin. The gate was constructed in Baroque style during the rule of Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm I in the years 1725-1727. The reason was that Sweden ceded parts of Pomerania including Stettin to Prussia with the Stockholm Agreement in 1720.
The beautiful gate was built to commemorate Stettin’s return to Prussia, and the gate was called Anklamer Tor. The architect was Gerhard Cornelius von Wallrave, and until the 19th century the gate was called Anklamer Tor, after which it was called Königstor. The gate marked the northernmost boundary of the old town.
The King’s Gate today stands in the middle of modern traffic arteries, which were built in the 1980s. In front of the gate, to the southwest, you can see Szczecin’s large sundial, Zegar Słoneczny, which was installed in 2012.
Baszta Panieńską or Maiden’s Tower is a tower that stands as the only surviving one of Szczecin’s medieval fortifications. The city’s old town was formerly surrounded by a city wall, which with its gates and towers formed an important part of the city’s defenses. The wall measured 2,510 meters in its time.
The Maiden’s Tower was built at the beginning of the 14th century and has had various purposes over time, including as a prison. The tower was called Frauenturm in Szczecin’s German times, and it got its name from the Frauentor gate, which, together with Mühlentor, Heiligegeisttor and Passauer Tor, were the city’s main gates.
Stettin’s walls and fortifications were demolished in the first half of the 18th century, but the Maiden Tower survived and was later rebuilt. The tower was partially destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in 1964. The distinctive tower stands today as one of Szczecin’s landmarks.
Kościół Garnizonowy św. Wojciecha is a church named after Bishop Vojtěch Adalbert of Prague, who was devoted to Christianize the territories under the Baltic Germans, which included Pomerania with present-day Szczecin. However, the church was inaugurated with the name Bugenhagenkirche, which was a Protestant church on Hohenzollernplatz.
The church was built by the architect Jürgen Kröger from Berlin in the years 1906-1909 in a mainly neo-Gothic style, although neo-romantic elements were incorporated. The tower has a height of 65.5 metres. In the interior of the church room you can see paintings, the coat of arms of the northwestern Polish city and window mosaics. The window above the altar shows the death of Bishop Vojtěch Adalbert.
There is a small park east of the garrison church, and here you can see a bust of the writer Kornel Ujejski, who is considered the last of the great Polish poets of the Romantic period. The monument was erected in the former Polish and now Ukrainian city of Lvov in 1901 and brought to Szczecin and inaugurated in its current position in 1957.
Urząd Miasta is one of the largest buildings in Szczecin, and the vast complex facilitates functions as the city’s town hall. The construction was adopted by the Pomeranian Parliament in 1921, when the so-called Landtag decided to erect the Landeshaus as the political and administrative center of German Pomerania.
The facility was conceived as a complex of administrative buildings that lay as a natural extension of the almost Parisian town plan northwest of the old town and with scenic surroundings, which can be seen north of the town hall. The land was acquired and construction started on 5 June 1924 to designs by the engineer Georg Steinmetz.
After being the Pomeranian Landeshaus, the NSDAP authorities had their seat here in the years 1933-1945. During the Polish era, the building complex was home to various authorities until it was given the status of a town hall in 1990. The buildings were originally covered with green plaster and the place was called the Spinach Palace. After a renovation in 2012-2017, the town hall got its green color back.
Bulwary Szczecińskie is a promenade located along the eastern bank of the Oder as it flows through the center of Szczecin. You can walk along the promenade opposite the old town between the Most Długi and Most Łabudy bridges, and from the promenade there is a nice view to the river and the Szczecin skyline.
There are also a few sights along Bulwary Szczecińskie. To the southwest at Most Długi you can see the large building Urząd Celny, which was constructed as Stettin’s customs building 1905-1908 in German Renaissance architecture. If you continue to the northeast, you can see the mast of the ship S/S Kapitan K. Maciejewicz. The mast dates from 1929, and it was erected as a maritime monument in 1989.
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