Sobieszewo Island in Gdańsk

Sobieszewo Island was created in a single night and given its final shape by workers with shovels and barges of stone. Gdańsk's largest and easternmost district is a strip of coastal forest and dunes between two mouths of the Vistula, with 11 km of wide beaches and two bird reserves. Grey seals rest on the sandbanks at the river mouth and can be watched from the beach.

An island made by a river and engineers

The island is bordered by the Gulf of Gdańsk to the north, the Martwa Wisła (Dead Vistula) to the south, the Wisła Śmiała to the west and the Vistula Cut to the east. The first river mouth formed overnight from 31 January to 1 February 1840, when the ice-jammed Vistula broke through the dunes at Górki and forced a new route to the sea. The poet Wincenty Pol, who described the event soon afterwards, named it Wisła Śmiała, the "Bold Vistula".

The second mouth is man-made. A series of floods that devastated the Żuławy delta lowlands led the authorities to dig a new channel, and the Vistula first flowed through it into the gulf on 31 March 1895 at 15:45. The cut is 7 km long and 250–400 m wide, flanked by embankments 10 m high. Brushwood mattresses weighed down with stones brought from Bornholm, among other places, were laid beneath its bed. The island has been part of Gdańsk since 1973 and has held "ecological island" status since 1994.

Ptasi Raj and Mewia Łacha

Birds of more than 300 species stop on and around the island. At its western tip, by the mouth of the Wisła Śmiała, lies the Ptasi Raj (Birds' Paradise) reserve, set up in 1959 as a refuge for waterbirds and wetland birds. An educational trail runs through it, with two large observation towers over the lakes Karaś and Ptasi Raj. A stone causeway separates the lake from the river and leads to a breakwater and a beach at the river mouth.

In the east, by the Vistula Cut, is the Mewia Łacha (Gull Shoal) reserve, founded in 1991 to protect breeding colonies of terns and waders. It is one of the most valuable natural sites on the Polish coast and a place where Baltic seals live naturally. It holds Europe's largest concentration of little gulls, and the Vistula mouth is the only breeding site of the Arctic tern in Poland.

More to see

• Kazimierz water tower – a modern water tower 30 m high with a viewing terrace on top and a panorama of the Gulf of Gdańsk.
• Przegalina lock – the North Lock, opened in 1895, is now an industrial heritage site and a viewpoint over the newer South Lock.
• Górki Wschodnie – a former fishing village with historic cottages, fish smokehouses and a seaplane hangar from the Free City of Danzig era.
• Forsterówka in Orle – the summer residence of Nazi Gauleiter Albert Forster from 1933 to 1945.
• Góra Mew – the island's highest point, 35 m above sea level.

Tripto tip

• Getting there: city buses 186, 112 and 212 run from Gdańsk Główny station. By car, leave the S7 at the Gdańsk Wschód junction, a few minutes from the island.
• Ptasi Raj: the trail starts at the bus 186 terminus in Górki Wschodnie, next to a small car park. It is open all year round.
• Seals: walk to Mewia Łacha along the beach or along the Vistula from the port in Świbno, where you can leave your car. Bring binoculars and stay on the marked path, as the reserve protects birds and animals from disturbance.
• Time: allow 2–3 hours for one reserve, and a full day for the island with time on the beach.