The Republic of Poland (Polska in Polish) is located to the south of the Baltic Sea between Germany and Belarus. Poland has a long history but in the last decades of the 1700s it lost its independence, partitioned in several stages by its then-neighbors Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Following World War I the 1919 Treaty of Versailles restored Poland's independence but gave the country only a small section of coastline at Gdynia. At the end of World War II in 1945 Poland's borders were shifted westward, reducing the size of the country but granting it a substantial coastline removed from the defeated Germany. Since the end of World War II in 1945 the coast of Poland has stretched from Świnoujście in the west to the Gulf of Gdansk in the east. Poland has at least 26 lighthouses on its Baltic coast and also many lighthouses on the inland waterway that extends from Świnoujście to Szczecin. This page lists the lighthouses of the Odra (Oder) River leading from the Szczecin Lagoon to Szczecin. Lighthouses of the northern portion of the waterway are described on the Świnoujście Area page. Poland is divided into 16 provinces called voivodeships (województwa), and the voivodeships are subdivided into powiats (counties) and gminas (municipalities). All the lighthouses of this page are in the voivodeship of West Pomerania (Zachodniopomorskie). West Pomerania became part of Prussia in 1720 and thus part of the German Empire when it was formed in 1871. As a result nearly all the lighthouses in the region were built under German administration. The German names of these lighthouses are shown in curly brackets {}. Szczecin (known as Stettin under German rule) is located on the Odra (Oder) River more than 50 km (30 mi) from the sea. The Odra empties into Szczecin Bay (Zalew Szczeciński in Polish or Stettiner Haff in German), a large lagoon that in turn empties into the Baltic through three channels. The western end of the bay and the westernmost of the three channels lie in Germany. Large ships enter the waterway through the central channel, the Świna, at Świnoujście (Swinemünde). Today Szczecin is Poland's largest port, but until World War II it was Germany's third largest port. In Polish a lighthouse is a "sea lantern," latarnia morska, plural latarnie morskie. Wyspa is an island, płycizna is a shoal, zatoka is a bay, zalew is a lagoon, cieśnina is a strait, rzeka is a river, falochron is a breakwater, and molo is a pier. The Baltic Sea is called the Morze Bałtyckie in Polish. Active Polish lighthouses are operated by the regional Maritime Office (Urząd Morski). Previously there were three of these offices, in Szczecin, Słupsk, and Gdynia. In 2020 the Słupsk office was closed and its duties transferred to the Gdynia office. All of the lights on this page are managed by the Szczecin Maritime Office (Urząd Morski w Szczecinie). ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Light List numbers are from volume C of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 116.
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Police and Goleniów Counties Lighthouses
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![]() Odra Channelt Light 21, August 2010 Light 20 at left, Stepnica Range Lights in the distance Google Mpas photo by Andrzej Armiński |
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City of Szczecin Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Świnoujście Area
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Posted April 18, 2005. Checked and revised June 17, 2024. Lighthouses: 37. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.