Vistula Lagoon

The Vistula Lagoon (Polish: Zalew Wiślany; Russian: Калининградский залив, transliterated: Kaliningradskiy Zaliv; German: Frisches Haff; Lithuanian: Aistmarės) is a brackish water lagoon on the Baltic Sea roughly 56 miles (90 km) long, 6 to 15 miles (10 to 19 km) wide, and up to 17 feet (5 m) deep, separated from the Gdańsk Bay by the Vistula Spit.

Vistula Lagoon
Landsat photo of the Vistula Lagoon
Vistula Lagoon is located in Poland
Vistula Lagoon
Vistula Lagoon
Vistula Lagoon is located in Baltic Sea
Vistula Lagoon
Vistula Lagoon
Vistula Lagoon is located in Europe
Vistula Lagoon
Vistula Lagoon
LocationPoland, Russia
Coordinates54°27′N 19°45′E
TypeLagoon
Native nameZalew Wiślany (Polish)
EtymologyVistula River
Primary inflowsBauda, Elbląg, Nogat, Pasłęka, Szkarpawa, Pregolya, Prokhladnaya, Wisła Królewiecka
Max. length90.7 km (56.4 mi)
Max. width13 km (8.1 mi)
Surface area838 km2 (324 sq mi)
Average depth2.7 m (8 ft 10 in)
Salinity3‰
SettlementsTolkmicko, Frombork, Krynica Morska, Baltiysk, Primorsk

Geography

The lagoon is a mouth of a few branches of the Vistula River, notably Nogat and Szkarpawa, and of the Pregolya River.

The lagoon is split between Poland (including the localities of Elbląg, Tolkmicko, Frombork, and Krynica Morska) and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast (including the localities of Kaliningrad, Baltiysk, and Primorsk). Before 2022, the only water route from the lagoon out to the Gdańsk Bay was the Strait of Baltiysk, in Russia's portion of the lagoon. The Polish port of Elbląg used to see a substantial amount of trading traffic on the lagoon, but that declined due to international tensions and silting. Between 2019 and 2022, Poland built the Vistula Spit canal in their own portion of the lagoon, to create another water route out of the lagoon. Kaliningrad and Baltiysk are currently major seaports on the lagoon.

Small port on the Vistula Lagoon in Frombork, Poland

It is an Important Bird Area of Poland.[1]

Etymology

The earliest version of the name of the Vistula Lagoon has been recorded in historical sources by Wulfstan of Hedeby at the end of the 9th Century as Estmere.[2] It is an Anglo-Saxon rendition of the Old Prussian Aīstinmari, which was the name for the lagoon. The name was the fusion of two Old Prussian words:

  • Aistei
  • *mari - "lagoon (a body of water cut off from a larger body by a reef of sand), fresh water bay".[3]

So, the oldest known meaning of the name of the Vistula Lagoon was "The lagoon or sea of the Aesti". The Old Prussian name is still used in Modern Lithuanian as Aistmarės, which preserves the original meaning.

Over three hundred years later, in the first half of the 13th Century, the name of the Vistula Lagoon occurs in deeds issued by the Teutonic Order in Latin as Mare Recens (1246 - "mare" - a pool or lake or sea and "recens" - fresh) in contrast to the contemporaneous name for the Baltic Sea - Mare Salsum (Salty Sea). Then in 1251 there is a reference to Mare Recens et Neriam and finally in 1288 Recenti Mari Hab, which evidently corresponds with the German "Frisches Haff".[4] The modern German name, Frisches Haff, is derived from an earlier form, Friesisches Haff.[5]

History

From the first half of the 13th c. the lagoon was part of the State of the Teutonic Order. In 1454, King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region to the Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation.[6] Following the peace treaty of 1466, it remained a part of Poland, with the western part forming part of the Polish provinces of Royal Prussia and Greater Poland, and the eastern part being a Polish fief, held by the Teutonic Knights and Ducal Prussia.[7] The surrounding area was inhabited by Poles, Germans and Kursenieki. Following the First Partition of Poland, the territory formed part of the Kingdom of Prussia, which became part of the German Empire in 1871. From 1920 to 1939 it was split between Germany and the Free City of Danzig. In 1945, the western part, comprising 43.8%, became again part of Poland, whereas the eastern part fell to the Soviet Union (now within Russia). Administratively, it is divided between the Polish Pomeranian and Warmian-Masurian voivodships, and the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast.

The nearly extinct ethnic group or Kursenieki lived on the Vistula Spit, by the lagoon.

From January until March 1945, throughout the evacuation of East Prussia, refugees from East Prussia crossed the frozen lagoon on their way west after the Red Army reached the coast of the lagoon near Elbing on January 26. Attacked by Soviet aircraft, thousands of these refugees were killed or fell through the broken ice.[8][9]

See also

References
  1. Vistula Lagoon, a fact sheet of BirdLife International
  2. Janet Batley, Wulfstan's voyage and his description of Estland: the text and the language of the text, in: Wulfstan's Voyage. The Baltic Sea region in the early Viking Age as seen from shipboard, Maritime Culture of the North, 2, Roskilde 2009, p. 15.
  3. Klussis, Mikkels (2006). Dictionary of revived Prussian: Prussian - English, English - Prussian. Vilnius. p. 47.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Codex diplomaticus Warmiensis oder Regesten und Urkunden zur Geschichte Ermlands. Bd. 1, Urkunden der Jahre 1231-1340, (ed.) Johann Martin Saage, Carl Peter Woelky, Mainz 1860, No. 13, p. 18 - 22, No. 26, p. 46 - 49, No. 79, p. 133 - 136.
  5. Erhard Riemann, Alfred Schoenfeldt, Ulrich Tolksdorf, Reinhard Goltz, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, Preussisches Wörterbuch: Deutsche Mundarten Ost- und Westpreussens, 6th edition, Wachholtz, 1974, p.595, ISBN 3-529-04611-6
  6. Górski, Karol (1949). Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych (in Polish). Poznań: Instytut Zachodni. pp. 51, 56.
  7. Górski, pp. 88–90, 96–97, 206–207, 214–215
  8. Max Egremont Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia (2012), ISBN 978-0374533564
  9. Patricia Clough The Flight Across The Ice: The Escape of the East Prussian Horses (2009), ISBN 978-1906598341
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