View of harbour at mouth of Duńczyca River

In the 1920s, artists active in Szczecin liked to depict views of the castle hill, the area around today's Wały Chrobrego (Chrobry Embankment), and the area at the mouth of the Duńczyca (Dunzig) River, which, as an old arm of the Oder, formed the inner water area of the harbour. In the 16th century, a shipyard functioned on its right bank. With time sailing ships and smaller vessels began to berth on this stretch of the Oder. In 1878, the Dunzig trans-shipment quay with its railway siding was opened; from then on, goods from ships were transported directly onto wagons. A causeway was laid across the Duńczyca River connecting Łasztownia (Lastadie) with the quays, and at the northern end, the Grodzki Canal was built as an entrance to the duty-free port. Before 1945, the private bathing establishment Waldowshof existed on the waters of Duńczyca, and the Waspo Stettin swimming club was active. In 1922, an unknown artist made an impressionistic painting of a fragment of a harbour, probably where Duńczyca flows into the Oder, with various vessels observed from the land and a fragment of a pier (possibly on the Łasztownia headland between the Grodzki and Dębicki Canals). The quay was shown without much movement on the water, as indicated by moored barges and sailing vessels, anchored with their sides parallel to each other, not along the shore, in a distinctive way. Hidden in the trees and seen from afar, the factory buildings were treated schematically, without architectural elements that would allow the viewer to recognise a fragment of the city. Smoking chimneys and a steamboat of staggering size were to testify to the changes taking place. The painting is signed with an illegible signature; however, some claim that it was painted by Wilhelm Hoffman (1897-1986), a North German painter who dealt mainly with maritime themes in his works.

Małgorzata Peszko