Szczecin is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland with a population of 408,000. In the vicinity of the Baltic Sea, it is the country’s seventh-largest city and a major seaport in Poland. Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin borders with the town of Police. Szczecin’s architectural style is due to trends popular in the last half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century, Academic art and Art Nouveau. In many areas built after 1945, especially in the city centre, which had been destroyed due to Allied bombing, social realism is prevalent. read more…
Usedom (Polish: Uznam) is a Baltic Sea island on the border between Germany and Poland. It is situated north of the Szczecin Lagoon (German: Stettiner Haff) estuary of the River Oder in Pomerania. Most of the island belongs to the German district of Vorpommern-Greifswald in the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with the exception of the eastern part and the city of Świnoujście (German: Swinemünde) which is in Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Its area is 445 km² (the German part 373 km²; the Polish part 72 km²). Its population is 76,500 (the German part 31,500; the Polish part 45,000). read more…