Grand Hotel, Sopot
# Grand Hotel, Sopot

Grand Hotel in Sopot is a historic five-star hotel located in Sopot, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. It currently operates under the name Sofitel Grand Sopot.

## History

The hotel was originally built in 1924–1927 at a cost of 20 million Danzig gulden as the most refined hotel in Sopot - the Kasino Hotel.

Between 19–26 September 1939, the hotel served as Adolf Hitler's headquarters from which he went twice to the outskirts of Warsaw to oversee the invasion of the city.

Between 11–16 September 1966, the hotel hosted the 16th Pugwash Conference entitled Disarmament and World Security, Especially in Europe.

On 13 December 1981, the hotel was the site of Operation "Mewa" (Seagull) carried out by the communist secret Security Service (SB) in which a group of Solidarity movement political dissidents was arrested including Lech Dymarski, Jacek Kuroń, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Karol Modzelewski and Jan Rulewski.

In 1990, the hotel launched a casino, the third in Poland after Warsaw and Krakow. The Sofitel Grand Hotel is located at the seaside of the Gdańsk Bay, in the heart of the town and next to the beach. In 2006, the Sofitel Grand Hotel was totally refurbished and modernized while preserving the classical atmosphere from the earlier period. In 2007, to maintain the history of Sopot as a Spa resort, the Grand Spa by Algotherm opened.

## Famous guests

Some of the hotel's prominent guests include:

* Alfonso XIII, King of Spain
* Martin Bormann, head of the Party Chancellery (Parteikanzlei) and private secretary to Adolf Hitler
* Charles Aznavour, French singer, songwriter and actor
* Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer, singer and dancer
* Fidel Castro, president of Cuba
* Christopher Collins, West End Man and traveller to the far east
* Marlene Dietrich, German-born actress, singer, and entertainer
* Greta Garbo, Swedish-born actress
* Charles de Gaulle, general and president of France
* Hermann Göring, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command of the German Third Reich, commander of the Luftwaffe
* Karel Gott, Czech singer
* Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born leader of the German Third Reich and Nazi Party
* Jan Kiepura, Polish-born singer (tenor) and actor
* Henry Kissinger, American politician and diplomat
* Annie Lennox, Scottish pop musician and vocalist
* Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet and prose writer, Nobel Prize laureate
* Ignacy Mościcki, president of Poland
* Prince, American singer
* Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
* Reza Shah Pahlavi, shah of Iran
* Leni Riefenstahl, German film director, actress and dancer
* Demis Roussos, Egypt-born Greek singer
* Shakira, Colombian singer
* Omar Sharif, Egypt-born actor
* Helena Vondráčková, Czech singer
* The Weeknd, Canadian singer
* Boney M, German pop and disco group
* Charles W. Yost, American diplomat
