EN
The practice of travelling to watering places, more and more popular in all Europe since the end of the 18th century, brought about a dynamic growth of old spas and resorts and establishment of a number of new ones. The prevailing wooden architecture employing at that time mainly exotic ’’Chinese” and classicist designs began to look for inspiration in Alpine and Norwegian folk building. In the course of time there appeared a new style of building which got the name of ’’Swiss” and became mandatory in the architecture of European resorts in the mid-19th century. The attempts made in Poland by Stanisław Witkiewicz to create original national forms based on the traditions of highlander’s carpentering school were unsuccessful. As a village Sopot existed already in the 18th century and in those days it was a holiday and rest base for neighbouring Gdańsk. The career of Sopot as a water spa began in 1827 when Jan Jerzy Haffner, a Napoleonic surgeon, settled down there and undertook his activities. He built up the Resort House and the Baths on the bank of the bay and planted there a large park. However, a dynamic development of Sopot started only after 1870 when a railway route linking Gdańsk and Koszalin and going through the town was opened. From a small seaside resort Sopot turned into a modern spa with a simply European renown. Its classistic appearance got changed. New houses were built on the site of lower Sopot, below the escarpment. In 1880—1900 this area was almost completely built up. At that time, next to exlusive eclectic villas and tenement houses there appeared small houses of a relatively low standard, in which a wooden veranda became a main element of decor. The function of veranda was associated with the function of the building and the place where it was erected. In old classicist manor houses it replaced a former porch on the ground floor, and a balcony or loggia on the upper floor. In principal, there were three types of houses with wooden verandas in sub-standard buildings put after 1880: 1) pensions, 2) detached houses, and 3) tenement houses. In these buildings it was desired to have as many verandas as possible. Verandas on upper floors enlarged the size of rented rooms, while those on the ground floor facilitated walking. A single veranda is as a rule found on the front or side elevation; its vertical axis is either accentuated, moved to the angle or ’’set” into it. Sometimes it forms a complete elevation. Two verandas are usually situated symmetrically towards each other. If they are placed irregularly, then, as a rule, they differ in apperance which determines the rank of each of them. There are representative verandas on front elevations and household ones situated at the back. A skeleton construction of the veranda is in principle self-supporting. Still, it is linked with the foundation and ceiling of the building. Just like buildings, verandas, in the majority of cases, have no cellars and are settled on ground sills or rather short underpinning brick-work. Vertical and horizontal constructional elements form a wooden skeleton of the veranda, dividing in into individual segments, out of which we can distinguish under-window, window and over-window belts, although the one mentioned as the last is not always present. The front of celing beams is covered with a cornice. Constructional elements are combined by means of carpenting joints and form the frame determining the main plane of the veranda in relation to which all filling-in and decorative elements are pushed back. Verandas are usually covered1 with pent or ridge roofs. The surface of over-window belts is filled with a wooden board or boards on which there are decorative elements in form of open-work embroidery, depicting usually a plant motif symetrie with a geometricized form in which a stylized ornament is linked with a circle motif. The surface of under-window belts is filled with wooden or butted boards, the joint of which are flat battens or halves of finely rolled banisters, which in the course of time changed into flat repeated decorative elements made of wooden boards respresenfring together an open-work symmetrical motif. Panel decorations can bp sometimes seen in over-and under-window be’ri while the form of poles reminds columns. Over- and under-window beets are designed in the form of friezes based on wooden ’’columns” and the arches linking them create "arcades”. One can notice there borrowings from monumental representative bricked architecture. A triangular gable of verandas and jerking heads of covering roofs are filled with open-work decorations and the axe of the roof gable is accentuated with a vertical belt. Rare underslung verandas may be "supported” by consoles, with open drawing depicting niant or animal motifs. Multi-plane decorations of verandas and jerking heads of roofs, a fine drawing of open- work embroideries, profiling of the strips framing them, subsequent retractations of the planes and undercuts of constructional elements are accentuated by day light, giving thus a specific charm to old verandas. In 1O45 Sopot, undestroyed by hostilities, became a housing base for Gdańsk and Gdynia. Old hotels and pensions were turned into lived-in houses. The number of serdential inhibitants grew up markedly. Only a few buildings were repaired or modernized. The effect of this negligence is, in the majoriy of cases, a poor technical condition of buildings and over-population of flats. In the end of the fifties a touristic function of the town was restored. In the course of time, in appreciation of a unique character of town buildings and values of its cultural environment, Sopot was recorded into a monuments register book (12.02.1979). Strict conservation protection covered the area of the lower te rrace, i.e. the place where a seaside resort began its development in the 19th century. The concept to revive the town, providing for at least partial restitution of old pensions and hotels, offers a chance to consolidate cultural and touristic functions of the town. A spatial structure of the town is to be protected in this area, which theoretically ensures a further existence and functioning of old building including sub-standard ones with characteristic wooden verandas. Major repairs which so far have been rather rare in Sopot become a necessity. Apart from buildings, repairs and conservation treatment should cover also verandas which are usually in a very poor condition. Dampness, fungus and insects brought about a marked worsening of their condition. Crumbling ground sills and underpinning brick-work cause their uneven subsidence and ’’going astray” from the elevation of the buildings. In most cases this destruction is progressive and many of the verandas lost their original function and have become a handy magazine for oddments. If it is not possible to rescue an original substance of verandas, we shall have then face a problem of their reconstruction. It is however questionable whether it will be possible to reconstruct fine and rich decorations of old wooden Sopot verandas which bring so much charm to buildings in the lower terrace of the town.