Sopot

Sopot  is a seaside town in Eastern Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000.

Sopot is a city with powiat (county) status, in Pomeranian Voivodeship. Until 1999 it was in Gdansk Voivodeship. It lies between the larger cities of Gdansk (to the south-east) and Gdynia (to the north), the three towns together making up the metropolitan agglomeration called Trojmiasto (Tri-City).

Sopot is a major health-spa and tourist resort destination. It has the longest wooden pier in Europe, at 515.5 metres, stretching out into the Bay of Gdansk. The city is also famous for its Sopot International Song Festival, the largest such event in Europe after the Eurovision Song Contest. Among its other attractions is a fountain of bromide spring water, known as the "inhalation mushroom".

The name is thought to derive from an old Slavic word sopot meaning "stream" or "spring". The same root occurs in a number of other Slavic toponyms; it is probably onomatopeic, imitating the sound of running water. (Today several streams run into the sea in the area of the town.)