SOBIESZEWO ISLAND STORY
The history of Sobieszewo Island is connected to the Vistula river and the processes taking place in its delta. Until 1840 the main estuary was in Gdańsk. But one night, on the 31st of January 1840, a disaster struck. A huge ice jam blocked the mouth of the river and the accumulated waters hit the Vistula Spit and broke it near Górki Wschodnie, creating a new arm of the Vistula river, which a famous Polish geographer Wincenty Pol very accurately called Wisła Śmiała (the Brave Vistula). The island got its eventual shape after 1895. As a solution to the flood problem in Żuławy, a 7100-metre-long canal was dug from Leniwka (the left arm of the Vistula delta) to the Gulf of Gdańsk. The canal was called Przekop Wisły. That way Vistula gained a new outlet and the western part of the spit became an island, later called Sobieszewo.
Traces of settlements discovered on the island date back to the neolithic period. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the island was crossed by a road between Gdańsk and Königsberg. There were two big inns by the road and next to them two major settlements sprang up, one of which was Bohnsack – the future Sobieszewo.
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, a summer pavilion was built near the beach, along with a bathing resort, which proved increasingly popular among holidaymakers, especially those who seeked to improve their health. A little later, in 1906, there was a spa built by the Vistula river, designed by W. Hedel.
Between 1933 and 1945, 4 Lazurowa Street in Orle (German name: Weidel) was the address of the so-called ”Forsterówka”, the house of an SS Gaulaiter and Obergruppenführer Albert Forster, also known as ”the butcher of Pomerania”.
After the war, on the 10th of June 1945 a new district was established on the island. It was called Śpiewowo and later renamed Świbno (the former German name: Schiewenhorst). The residence of the municipal authorities, though, was in Bąsak – the future Sobieszewo.
On December 1st 1973 the whole island officialy became part of the city of Gdańsk.