Here are some fun facts about Szczecin! If you have fun facts to share with us, comment on our Facebook page.
Its architecture is often compared with Paris, as the heart of the city is a star-shaped square, with diverging avenues. There is another reason for making the comparison with Paris – Baron G.E. Haussmann, who created a town-planning project for the French capital, also designed Szczecin.
Popular dishes in the local gastronomic culture are pasztecikszczeciński (fried pâté filled with meat and vegetables) and paprykarzszczeciński (fish pâté).
The striking colour of Lake Szmaragdowe, located in Zdroje district, is given away by the translation of its name: The Emerald Lake. Lying within the lush, enchanting Beech Woods Landscape Park in the Bukowe Hills, it was formed during the excavations of an old chalk mine; there are actually still pieces of mining machinery at the bottom.
Occupying a massive 170 hectares, Szczecin’s Central Cemetery is the largest necropolis in Poland, and is really a remembrance “garden of the deceased”. Gravestones, of which many are the work of great artists, stand amidst a few hundred species of trees, many of them exotic.
Often - and very understandably - called the city of greenery, Szczecin boasts over 500 hectares of municipal green areas, including 15 parks with a total area of 142 hectares, 90 green squares with a total area of 55.2 hectares, and cemeteries occupying an incredible 193.87 hectares. And that’s not even including the city’s woodlands!
At the Historical Museum, you can see a medieval treasure trove unearthed in 2001 during building works elsewhere in the city, a multimillion-dollar collection of silver coins, buttons, rings and other jewellery – and the small iron pot the loot was stashed in.
