Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the historic narrative of a breach in the Vistula Spit caused by a storm surge in 1497, touching upon the perception, relevance, and consequences of this change in the coastline and connecting this history to present questions related to access to the sea.

Paper long abstract:

Water in motion has the power to literally transform shores and coasts. The changes in the environment caused by flood events on the coastline in the Southern Baltic Sea area have in numerous occasions commanded an adaption to the new conditions by societies and reshuffled the cards regarding resources, access and connections.

Taking a narratological perspective, the paper will investigate one case in which a storm surge had a permanent impact on the Baltic Sea coast, to which adjacent communities had to adapt and which was conclusively turned into a narrative: During a flood in September 1497, a breach through the Vistula Spit, known today as the Strait of Baltiysk, opened. Multiple sources within the historiography took notice of this and report on the event.

Focusing on how and where this incident was narrated allows insight into the perception of change in the environment and proves that this was an event of supraregional importance, in whose context the role of water and causes of the coast transformation were also described. Another topic will be the consequences of change: Soon the navigable strait became a point of conflict among trading cities, including those of the Hanseatic League, foreshadowing a conflict about the same waterway in the present: Russian domination about the Strait of Baltyisk has led to the building of a new channel through the Vistula Spit by Poland in hopes of gaining an independent access, opening a geopolitical perspective with a connection to the past.