Pogoń Szczecin stadium guide for visitors

Why Szczecin, if you are coming from the west

Most guides to Polish football assume you are flying into Warsaw or Kraków. Szczecin is the exception worth knowing about: it is roughly two hours from Berlin by direct train, and considerably closer to the German capital than to the Polish one.

For a groundhopper based in or passing through northern Germany, that turns a Polish ground from an expedition into an afternoon. It also makes Szczecin the natural bridge between a German groundhopping route and a Polish one — Berlin, Szczecin, then east or south into the rest of the country.

Getting there

The stadium is on ul. Karłowicza, close to the centre of the city and reachable on foot from much of it. Szczecin runs an extensive tram network and the ground is served by it; check the specific line for where you are staying rather than assuming.

Buy and validate a transport ticket before boarding. Inspections happen and visitors are not excused.

By rail, Szczecin Główny connects directly to Berlin and to the Polish network. The station is a short ride from the ground.

Tickets: what actually works for a foreigner

The Polish system applies here as everywhere: personalised tickets tied to an account, with the online purchase form built around a PESEL — the Polish national identification number. Where the form will not take a foreign document, the purchase stops at the last field.

Bring your passport and buy in person. Photographic identification is what the ticket window needs, and you are not required to hold a supporter card as a foreign visitor.

Twenty-one thousand seats for a club with Pogoń's following means ordinary league fixtures are usually obtainable, but this is a well-supported club in a city with no competition for attention — there is no second team in Szczecin. Treat big fixtures as a different proposition and buy early.

Where away fans sit

Visiting supporters are housed in a designated sector, and the allocation is set per fixture according to the policing category of the match. Confirm the sector for your specific game rather than relying on a previous season's arrangement. If you are attending as a neutral, say so when buying and ask for a side stand.

The ground itself

There has been a stadium on this site since 1925, when a 15,000-capacity ground with an athletics track opened here. At the end of the Second World War the German army used the area as an anti-aircraft position and much of it was destroyed; partial rebuilding began in 1949.

The modern stadium is the result of a full reconstruction between 2019 and 2022 — four covered stands, 21,163 seats, no running track. It is one of the newest grounds in the Ekstraklasa and one of the better ones: the right size for the club, close to the pitch, and finished properly rather than left half-done.

It carries the name of Florian Krygier, the coach who took Pogoń into the top division by 1958 and spent a working lifetime at the club. Polish grounds are frequently named after national figures; this one is named after a football man, which tells you something about how the city regards him.

Eating at the ground

The Polish stadium standard applies: kiełbasa grilled and served in a roll with mustard, zapiekanka, hot dogs, chips.

• Beer is capped at 3.5% ABV by Polish law on mass events, and availability depends on the security category of the fixture.
• Bring a card. Assume cashless.

But Szczecin has two local specialities that exist nowhere else, and both are street food. Eat in town.

Szczecin before the match

What to see

• The Ducal Castle — the seat of the Dukes of Pomerania, rebuilt after wartime destruction, with a viewing tower over the city and the Oder.
• The Chrobry Embankment — a monumental terrace above the river, built when this was the German city of Stettin, and the best place in Szczecin to understand what kind of port this was.
• Jasne Błonia and the Wały Chrobrego avenues — Szczecin was laid out with Parisian-style radiating boulevards and roundabouts, which is unlike anywhere else in Poland.
• The underground shelters beneath the main station — a wartime and Cold War complex open to visitors, and a serious piece of twentieth-century history.

What to eat, and where

Szczecin has the most distinctive local food of any Polish city, and it is not what you would expect:

• Pasztecik szczeciński — a deep-fried yeast-dough parcel with a meat or vegetarian filling, produced on Soviet-era machinery and eaten standing up with a cup of hot red barszcz. It has been on the official Polish list of traditional products since December 2010 and is protected accordingly. Bar Pasztecik, which opened in 1969 and can turn out well over six hundred an hour, is the place. This is the single most Szczecin thing you can do.
• Paprykarz szczeciński — a tinned fish spread of ground fish, rice and tomato paste, developed in the 1960s by the city's deep-sea fishing company and based on a West African dish their crews had eaten at sea. A tin of it is the classic thing to take home; it also turns up served on toasted bread in bars around town.

For sit-down eating, ul. Jagiellońska is the street to walk after seeing the centre — a run of restaurants and cafés rather than a single address, which is a more durable recommendation than any one venue.

Common questions

How long is the trip from Berlin?

Around two hours by direct train to Szczecin Główny. Check the current timetable, and check the last service back before committing to an evening kick-off.

Is there another club in the city?

Not at this level. Pogoń have Szczecin to themselves, which is part of why the ground fills.

What else is within reach?

Very little in Polish football terms — Szczecin is isolated from the rest of the league by distance. Combine it with Berlin or with the German north-east rather than with another Polish ground.

A ground reached from a different country is exactly the kind of entry worth recording properly. Add Szczecin to your bucket list and record the trip when you make it.