Editing Sopot (section)

=== Kingdom of Prussia ===
[[File:Sopot, dworek Sierakowskich.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dworek Sierakowskich|Sierakowski Mansion]], a late 18th-century [[Manor houses of Polish nobility|Polish manor house]]]]
Sopot was annexed by the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] in 1772 in the [[First Partition of Poland]]. Following the new laws imposed by King [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick the Great]], church property was confiscated by the state. The village was still being reconstructed and in 1806 the area was sold to the Danzig/Gdańsk merchant Carl Christoph Wegner. However, until 1819 it did not develop significantly, its population in 1819 was 350,<ref name=his/> compared to 301 in the year of Prussian annexation.<ref name=hisarch/>

[[File:Statue of Jean Georg Haffner in Sopot.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of [[Jean Georg Haffner]]]]
In 1819, Wegner opened the first public bath in Zoppot and tried to promote the newly established spa among the inhabitants of [[Gdańsk|Danzig]] (Gdańsk), but the undertaking was a financial failure. However, in 1823 [[Jean Georg Haffner]], a former medic of the [[France|French]] army, financed a new bath complex that gained significant popularity. In the following years, Haffner erected more facilities. By 1824, a [[sanatorium]] was opened to the public, as well as a 63-metre [[pier]], cloakrooms, and a park. Haffner died in 1830, but his enterprise was continued by his stepson, Ernst Adolf Böttcher. The latter continued to develop the area and in 1842 opened a new [[theatre]] and sanatorium. By then the number of tourists coming to Zoppot every year had risen to almost 1,200.

In 1870 Zoppot saw the opening of its first rail line: the new Danzig-[[Kołobrzeg]] (then ''Kolberg'') [[rail road]] that was later extended to [[Berlin]]. Good rail connections added to the popularity of the area and by 1900 the number of tourists had reached almost 12,500 a year.
[[File:Sopot-Parkowa5-B.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Church of the Saviour]]
In 1873, the village of Zoppot became an [[administrative centre]] of the [[States of Germany#Subdivisions|Gemeinde]]. Soon other villages were incorporated into it and in 1874 the number of inhabitants of the village rose to over 2,800. In 1877, the self-government of the Gemeinde bought the village from the descendants of Haffner and started its further development. A second sanatorium was constructed in 1881 and the pier was extended to 85 metres. In 1885, the gas works were built. Two years later, [[tennis court]]s were built and the following year a horse-racing track was opened to the public. There were also several facilities built for the permanent inhabitants of Zoppot, not only for the tourists. Among those were two new churches: [[Protestantism|Protestant]] (September 17, 1901) and [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] (December 21, 1901). From the late 19th century, there was a significant influx of [[Germans|German]] settlers with the slow growth of the [[Polish people|Polish]] population, resulting in a change in ethnic proportions in favor of the former.<ref name=hm1/>

[[File:Zoppot Kurgarten 1900.jpg|thumb|Late 19th-century view of the [[Pier in Sopot|Sopot Pier]]]]
Since the late 19th century the city became a holiday resort for the inhabitants of nearby Danzig, as well as wealthy aristocrats from Berlin, [[Warsaw]], and [[Königsberg]]. Poles visited the city in large numbers and the spa was very popular among the Polish intellectual elite, to the extent that the early 20th-century Polish writer {{interlanguage link|Adolf Nowaczyński|pl|display=1}} named it "the extension of Warsaw to the Baltic Sea".<ref name=hm1/> Germans and Russians also visited the city.<ref name=hm1/> At the beginning of the 20th century it was a favourite spa of Emperor [[Wilhelm II of Germany]].

[[File:Dwor karlikowski1736.jpg|thumb|Karlikowo Manor, place of stay of King [[John II Casimir of Poland]] in 1660, before demolition by the Germans in 1910]]
On October 8, 1901, Wilhelm II granted Zoppot [[city rights]], spurring further rapid growth. In 1904 a new [[balneology|balneological]] sanatorium was opened, followed in 1903 by a [[Sopot Lighthouse|lighthouse]]. In 1907, new baths south of the old ones were built in [[Vikings|Viking]] style. In 1909 a new theatre was opened in the nearby forest within the city limits, in the place where today the [[Sopot Festival]] is held every year. By 1912, a third complex of baths, sanatoria, hotels, and restaurants was opened, attracting even more tourists. Shortly before [[World War I]] the city had 17,400 permanent inhabitants and over 20,000 tourists every year.