Spa & Wellness
Prana Spa by Thao Thai - Specialists in Eastern massage techniques.
SOPOT: BALTIC SPA RESORT Back in the early 19th century, when Frenchman Jean Georg Haffner returned to Sopot, his aim was to build a spa and health resort in the wonderful place he’d discovered while marching east as a doctor with Napoleon’s army some years before. In 1823, he opened the first Bath House, which offered a range of treatments and baths. The first Resort House (Salon or a Kursaal) was opened in 1824, changing rooms were added on the beach, and a small pier was built. Haffner died in 1830, but his legacy didn’t. Stewardship passed into the hands of the Böttcher family who added another storey to the Resort House, featuring 12 modest hotel rooms, while Haffner himself entered folklore, today revered as the father of modern Sopot. It’s for this reason you’ll find the town bristling with hotels, streets and monuments in his honour. When Sopot, or Zoppot as it was then known, was connected by rail to Berlin in 1870, the resort’s popularity grew. The existing buildings were pulled down and a new complex, in effect the second Resort House was built. Opened in 1881, this symmetrically fronted building with its two towers faced the sea, featured a magnificent vestibule opening onto the restaurants and a ballroom, and more hotel rooms were added. The square (Kurgarten) separated the Resort House from the beach and spacious walking galleries were added in 1895. There was a concert 120
arena located in the northern wing of the Resort Square (recreated next to the Sheraton) and the area was crowned by a magnificent fountain in 1903. Still the resort grew and in 1903 and 1907 new complexes of baths were added and the pier extended by 160m in 1910. The Second Resort House, barely 30 years old, and despite renovations, was no longer suitable for the demands placed upon it, and in 1909 it was levelled to the ground and replaced by a third. Gdansk architect Carl Weber designed and built the new Resort House which was constructed in record time between September 30th 1909 and 15th June 1910.
The fourth and current iteration of Sopot’s Resort House.