Szczecin from the water

Taking a river cruise around sunset gives new perspectives on a maritime or riverine city, often yielding magnificent prospects not to be experienced on foot. Szczecin is no exception.

Below: pulling away by boat from the centre of Szczecin, beyond the far end of the Bulwar Chrobrego.

Below: flashback to the Royal Docks on the Thames in the early 1980s before they were redeveloped. The entrances to Basen Wschodni and Basen Zachodni, the East and West Basens of Szczecin docks.

Below: floating dry-dock in Szczeciń's Stocznia Remontowa (repair shipyard), currently servicing the Sea La Belle, a Liberian-registered chemical tanker used for carrying epoxy resins (!). It has been here for just over a week.

Below: Is this Cookham Dene? Are we on the upper reaches of the Thames? No, this is about five minutes' north by boat from central Szczecin. And soon it will be autumn in Buckinghamshire. 

Left: looking back towards the Szczecin shipyards. The city offers the joys of boating to its citizens, who have safe inland waters close to hand. The season is over, but it's still warm enough until the sun goes down. 

Below: the wreck of the Ulrich Finsterwalder, a small concrete-hulled (yes!) transport ship built by the Germans in 1942. A circumnavigation of ts 90m-long hull marked the end point of the cruise; having rounded the Eisenbeton-Seefrachter, our boat began to head back for Szczecin. At this point, we are still over 55km from the sea – so much for Churchill's "From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain is descending across our Continent." But then I doubt he could have mastered the pronunciation of 'Świnoujście on the Baltic'.

Below: last rays of the sun, setting over Szczecin's north-western suburbs, the telephoto zoom shot...

...and the wide angle shot. Sunset is 25 minutes later here than in Chynów, due to Szczecin's location on Poland's extreme west.

Below: return to Szczecin's port, passing the shipyards on the left bank of the Oder. Marvellous mood. Puts me in mind of Joseph Conrad's description of the Thames Estuary at the beginning of Heart of Darkness or Erskine Childer's descrption of the approaches to the Kiel Canal in Riddle of the Sands.

This time 11 years ago:
Polish politics enter a critical period

This time 13 years ago:
New shopping centre for Jeziorki?

This time 15 years ago:
Mobile and intelligent

This time 16 years ago:
Unadopted – abandoned properties

Szczecin Philharmonic

I first laid eyes upon Szczecin Philharmonic from the 11th floor of the Radisson Blu hotel in November 2016 (photo below). The building, which brings to mind an frost-covered mediaeval Hanseatic skyline, was designed by Studio Barozzi Veiga from Barcelona. It won the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2015 and the Architectural Design of the Year prize in the Eurobuild Awards 2014 contest.

And now, a chance to see the building from the inside, and indeed to take in a concert, not just any concert, but the one inaugurating the 2026/2027 season. This consisted of three pieces; Beethoven's Egmont overture, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor (which he composed at the age of 20!) and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 in D major.

Below: the large spiral staircase that can handle peak audience flows between levels before and after performances and during the breaks.

Left: Architecture that seems to pre-shadow Warsaw's controversial contemporary arts museum in terms of their interiors (though it must be said, the exteriors differ as much as a Portakabin differs from a Gothic cathedral).

Below: the auditorium, which seats nearly 1,000 people, was expressly designed to deliver the most outstanding acoustic qualities. This was demonstrated by the guide dropping a one-grosz coin (weighing 1.6g) from the balcony onto the lower floor – the sound reverberated clearly around the concert hall. On either side of the ceiling are stowed thick black curtains (kotary) that drop down to cover the angled acoustic wall panels to prevent deafness when electrically-amplified music is being performed at eleven.

I was lucky enough to watch the concert from behind the orchestra, so for the first time I had the chance to watch an orchestral conductor at work from face-on, rather than just his back. It was a revelation; the gestures, the facial expressions – very powerful.

Below: general view of the foyer area, which possesses a worthy bar, serving a respectable variety of beverages including craft ales.

There were two exhibitions in galleries on the upper floors; one an entirely forgettable bunch of abstract paintings, the other an atmospheric black-and-white photo-reportage of charcoal burners in the Bieszczady hills taken by the Kumor family, Tomasz, Magdalena and their son Michał.

The Szczecin Philharmonic is an absolute must-experience venue for anyone visiting the city.

This time last year:
Compositions in reds, greens, whites and blues

This time ten years ago:
Low water mark

This time 15 years ago:
Łódź to Jeziorki by car in four hours
[See how Poland's road network has improved!]

This time 16 years ago:
What's new on the manor?

This time 17 years ago:
The funeral of Tadeusz Lesisz

This time 18 years ago:
Socialist realism in the boardroom