Our future is associated with water – the Emperor Wilhelm II said in 1898 while opening the duty free port in Szczecin. Nobody knows today whether His Highness would have said the sentence if the 7.5 km channel had not divided the Uznam Island into two parts some 17 years earlier, constituting foundations of the modern port in Szczecin. 

Following the Piana river towards the sea
The first annotations on the Port of Szczecin come from the times of Otton I, the Emperor who conferred several privileges to Szczecin and incorporated a fragment of Odra river into the borders of the City. Within the period of Otton I ruling as well as during the following 500 years the main waterway leading from Szczecin to altic Sea was the Piana river. According to the provisions of Versal Treaty of 1648, after the 30-year War, the region of Pomorze Zaodrzanskie (Odra Precinct Pomerania) together with Uznam Island, Wolin Island, Szczecin Bay and three rivers – Piana, Dziwna and Swina – went under the rule of Sweden. That status protracted by 1720 when the region of  West Pomerania went under the rule of Prussians. Even then, however, the presence of Swedish could still be perceived. Taking advantage of the convenient location of Ologoszcz Town the Swedish imposed pretty high customs charges for using Piana River. The charges were cancelled not earlier than in 1815. The high charges gave rise to search for new possible waterway conncetion leading to Baltic Sea.

Swina River – new waterway connection
The decision to Swina River was chosen. Soon after the decision the dredging works started and the river bed underwent regulation. The hydrotechnic works continued for the entire XVIIIth century. When the estuary of Piana River got under control of Prussians the Swina River was regulated well enough to reason its maintenance and modernization.
Successive and unavoidable development of trading fleet forced the modernization of fairway between Szczecin and Swinoujscie. The steamships, much faster and bigger than sailboats, came into regular use (the first steamship called Szczecin in 1823). The navigation along Swina River was no longer safe enough for new vessels. It appeared to shallow and winding, its depth of 4 m became insufficient. Therefore, the bigger size vessels were partially unloaded in Swinoujscie port and part of their cargo transported to Szczecin on flat-bottomed boats.

Fairway
The plans to construct a channel across Uznam Island were developed in 1862. However, the works were commenced 13 years later in 1875. The construction works lasted for five years and cost 3.5 million German marks. Successful finalization of the undertaking was the opening of Cesar Channel on 26 June 1880. The Uznam Island was divided with 7.5 km long Emperor’s Channel  (Kaiserfahrt), the previous name of Piastowski Channel. The channel brought forth new possibilities of vessel servicing for the port and shipyards of Szczecin – allowed to handle vessels which could not enter the port earlier. Within 1893 – 1900 the channel was made deeper to 7 meters and its banks consolidated and strengthend. The 2-km fragment of the Channel, from the side of Szczecin Bay was additionally strengthened with piling-stone piers.

A subsequent phase of Szczecin-Swinoujscie fairway modernization was the construction of another channel, Mielinski Channel across Mielin Island in 1890s. The most significant fascine-stone strengthening of Piastowski Channel banks were accomplished in 1928 while in 1931 the outlet of Piastowski Channel towards Szczecin Bay was furnished with the first traffic gate.Nowadays the depth of Piastowski Channel is 10,5 m. It permits entrance of vessels of draught up to 9,15 m.

The construction of Piastowski Channel and Mielinski Channel, beside their unquestioned positive effect for navigation, caused also more intense inflow of sea water into Szczecin Bay (due to strong currents occurring in the channels); the Bay’s water level amplitude increased. There were several severe damages noted; a huge storm at night on 8-9 February 1934 caused serious damage to the channel banks and let the tremendous mass of sea water to rush inside the land. 

Necessary investment
Today, Piastowski Channel with its 120-year operation and exploitation is the subject of modernization projects that should improve the navigation conditions there.For the last half-century period the statistics on the ports of Szczecin and Swinoujscie shows hundreds million tons of cargo handled and tens thousand of vessels serviced. For 120 years a great number of significant and substantial investments were accomplished for Szczecin and particularly for Swinoujscie – thanks to that decision made in 1875. Thanks to the determination and wise investments after the War II our two Cities have created and established one of the largest port complexes in Baltic Region.