The Port of Szczecin is the capital of Zachodniopomorskie Province in Poland. Lying on the western bank at the mouth of the River Oder as it enters Dabie Lake just south of the Pomeranian Bay, it is about 65 kilometers inland from the Baltic Sea. The seventh largest city in Poland, the Port of Szczecin is the country’s biggest seaport when combined with the Port of Swinoujscie about 60 kilometers to the northwest. The Port of Swinoujscie is governed by the same port authority. In 2005, over 420 thousand people lived in the Port of Szczecin.

With three shipyards, shipping and ship-building are the major occupations in the city. Fishing is an important part of the local economy, and the city also supports a steel mill. Several major companies are based in the Port of Szczecin, including some in the IT sector. The Port of Szczecin is a center for culture in western Poland. With four universities, several theaters, an orchestra, and the National Museum, it is a beautiful city dotted with parks and small lakes.

Archaeological evidence suggests that seafaring people lived in the area some 2500 years ago, but the history of the Port of Szczecin began in the 8th Century AD when Slavs settled the Pomerania area and built a fortification and settlement on the site of today’s modern castle. While Mieszko I of Poland was able to rule some regions in Pomerania during the late 10th Century, he could not conquer this area.

During the 12th Century, the Port of Szczecin became a powerful and important seaport on the south coast of the Baltic Sea. The town was conquered by Boleslaus III of Poland in 1121, and its residents were converted to Christianity by bishop Otto of Bamberg over the decade of the 1120s. The local duke Wartislaw was able to regain some influence and expand his territory to the west, forming the Duchy of Pomerania. During the later half of the 12th Century, German tradesmen from the Holy Roman Empire moved into the city.

Polish sovereignty was short-lived. In 1164, the local Stettin lord became vassals to the German Duchy of Saxony, and the Stettin-castellan became a vassal of Denmark. Control of the area went to the Holy Roman Empire for a short time, and then the Stettin dukes again became vassals of Denmark.

In the 13th Century, more Germans began to settle in Pomerania. The town received a local government charter in 1237 that separated the German and Slavic communities. When the Port of Szczecin fell under German town law in 1249, the Slavic settlement was dissolved and its residents moved to suburbs outside the town.

The Thirty Years’ War raged when the Treaty of Stettin of 1630 made the Port of Szczecin and most of Pomerania part of the Swedish Empire. They held the area until 1720 when they ceded the Port of Szczecin to King Frederick William I of Prussia after the Great Northern War.

The modern Port of Szczecin began to grow in 1826 when with frequent navigation of the River Oder. The port continued to grow, largely because of its proximity to Berlin some 145 kilometers southwest, until World War II. In 1926, the channel to the port was deepened, and the outport of Swinoujscie was enlarged. The Port of Szczecin became an important Prussian city and, in 1871, part of the Prussian-ruled German Empire.

In the 1930s, about 400 thousand people lived in the Port of Szczecin, and it was the third largest seaport in Germany. The German Wehrmacht made it a military headquarters for the region in 1935. In the 1939 invasion of Poland that started World War II, the Port of Szczecin was the base for the German 2nd Motorized Infantry Division.

In 1940, Jews were expelled from the Port of Szczecin, signing away their property to the Nazis and being put on SS-escorted trains. Publicity of the event was great enough that the German leadership ordered future actions to be handled more discretely.

In 1944, Allied air raids and fierce battles between German and Soviet troops destroyed over half of the city’s buildings, its seaport, and its major industries. The Red Army took the Port of Szczecin in 1945, but they took a near-deserted city because its residents had escaped before their entry into the town.

In 1945, the Germans were forced out of the Port of Szczecin, and it was resettled with Poles from areas that were annexed by the Soviet Union. In 1947, many Ukrainians came to the Port of Szczecin after the Communists forced them to leave eastern Poland.

The Polish residents of the Port of Szczecin rebuilt and enlarged the city after the war. The city became an important industrial center for the country and a major Polish seaport serving Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany.

In the 1970s, citizens of the Port of Szczecin participated in anti-communist rebellions, and they took part in the famous Solidarity movement of the 1980s. The Port of Szczecin became the Capital of Zachodniopomorskie Province in 1999.

The Szczecin and Swinoujscie Seaports Authority SA became the port authority for the Port of Szczecin in 1996. This public entity is responsible for managing port infrastructure and property, planning and developing the port, building and maintaining port infrastructure, acquiring new areas for development, and providing services for users of the port. Earnings are used to manage, construct, maintain, and modernize port infrastructure.

The Port of Szczecin and the Port of Swinoujscie are critically important to the Polish economy. They are also the closest ports to Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and eastern Germany. They are also on the shortest route linking Sweden with central and south Europe and linking Russia and Finland with Western Europe. The Port of Szczecin serves regular traffic with Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Great Britain in Europe and with China and West Africa.

In the 2006-2007 shipping season, 4619 vessels entered the Port of Szczecin carrying 4.2 million tons of cargo. Major cargo groups included general cargo, coal, iron ore, bulk, grain, and timber.

Steel products are exported all over the world through the Port of Szczecin from Poland, Germany, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Other general cargoes moving through the Port of Szczecin include paper going from Finland to Germany, granite imports from South Africa into Poland, and wood products going from Southern Europe to Scandinavia.

The Port of Szczecin maintains a storage area covering 15 thousand square meters for 800 TEUs of containerized cargoes, and it can handle up to 50 thousand TEUs per year. It can also handle refrigerated containers in two new warehouses that total 14.7 thousand square meters.

The Port of Szczecin handles a variety of bulk cargo and, with the Port of Swinoujscie, is the biggest service center for dry bulk on Poland’s coast. Major bulk cargoes include coal, iron ore, fertilizers, coke, salt, concentrates, and scrap metal. The Port of Szczecin also handles raw materials for the construction industry including liquid tar and pitch. The two ports combined handle almost half of all of Poland’s coal exports and all of its iron ore imports.

Coal is the major bulk cargo handled in the Port of Szczecin. The Szczecin Coal Terminal has capacity to load a thousand tons of coal per hour, its cranes can lift up to 16 tons, and the receiving area includes storage for 200 thousand tons.

The Port of Szczecin also contains specialized terminals for grains and animal forage. It boasts the biggest grain silo on the Polish coast with capacity for 75 thousand cubic meters. The Port of Szczecin offers grain transshipment, storage, weighing, and drying services. Its total of four silos can store as much as 70 thousand tons.

The Port of Szczecin and the Port of Swinoujscie have duty-free zones where imported goods are traded, processed, or refined. Goods from outside the European Union can be stored here without customs duties or import fees.

The duty-free zone in the Port of Szczecin covers 19.7 hectares and includes five docks with a total length of 1377 meters. Ships of up to 10 thousand DWT with maximum draft of 7.7 meters can berth here. The duty-free zone also contains 60 thousand square meters of storage sites and two storehouses covering 26.2 thousand square meters. The primary goods that are stored include aluminum, cacao beans, and granite blocks.

The Port of Szczecin is connected by road with Berlin and with Europe’s highway network. Also connected to Europe’s inland waterway system, the Port of Szczecin is a popular river cruise destination. In the heart of the city is the Waly Chrobrego Quay, where cruisers up to 215 meters long with draft of 6.5 meters bring passengers to visit the Port of Szczecin. There is also an alternate quay for vessels with draft to 9.15 meters.

The City of Szczecin is an historic Hanseatic City that has been at the junction of European power for centuries. It is a charming green city and the cultural, historical, and scientific capital of Western Pomerania. It also offers many opportunities for fine dining and great shopping. Visitors will not want to miss some of the special sights the Port of Szczecin has to offer.

The Pomeranian Dukes Castle is perhaps the most popular tourist attraction in the city. Containing a museum, restaurants, cafes, and a tourist information office, the castle was an important cultural center for life in Western Pomerania. Today, it supports the art community in the Port of Szczecin. Visitors can attend classical and chamber music concerts or art exhibitions at almost any time.

The Waly Chrobrego promenade offers wonderful views of the River Oder and several good cafes. Located centrally on the promenade, the Muzeum Morskie (Polish Maritime Museum) holds artifacts from the Port of Szczecin’s history and collections of African and maritime historic objects. Another popular activity is taking a cruise of the harbor. Visitors can ride the Odra Queen or Peene Queen from the Waly Chrobrego waterfront and see the city from Dabie Lake.

Adventurous visitors will want to see the Port of Szczecin’s Underground Paths, a reconstruction of an area that was a bomb shelter during World War II and a fallout shelter during the Cold War era. Built in 1941, the Germans used old 19th Century corridors in constructing the shelter. With five underground floors, it is 17 meters at its deepest. The walls are three meters thick, and the ceiling is 2.8 meters thick. The shelter holds several walled up corridors that are still mysteries. Two tours are available of the underground. The World War II Route reconstructs living conditions in the shelter during air raids and talks about the progress of the war seen from this underground maze.

Travelers who want to see the Port of Szczecin by sea can find a list of scheduled cruises by searching for “Szczecin” on the Cruise Compete website.