Krzywy Domek

The Krzywy Domek, or Crooked House, is a building on Sopot's main street whose facade appears to bend and melt like something drawn by hand. It sits at ulica Bohaterow Monte Cassino 53, part of the Rezydent shopping and dining complex, and it is one of the most photographed structures on the Polish coast.

It is a quick stop rather than a sight you spend an hour on, but it is hard to walk past. The warped walls, the wavy window frames and the scaled roof read like a cartoon that has stepped into the street. You come to look, take a photo and go inside if you want a coffee or a meal. It stands right on the main pedestrian route to the pier, so you pass it anyway.

The building was completed in 2004 to a design by the Sopot studio Szotynscy and Zaleski. The architects took their cue from the fairytale illustrations of Jan Marcin Szancer, a Polish artist whose drawings shaped how generations pictured childhood stories, and from the work of the Swedish illustrator Per Dahlberg. The result is deliberately unreal: nothing on the front is straight, and the whole facade seems to sag and curve as if seen through warped glass.

Behind the strange front is an ordinary commercial building. It holds shops, cafes and restaurants, including Rucola, and offices above. You do not need a ticket to go in and look around the passageways. The inside is conventional, so the appeal stays firmly on the outside.

Stand across the street to fit the whole facade in and let the curves do the work. Early morning gives you the front without crowds in the frame. After dark the building is lit, which exaggerates the warp and makes for the strongest shots. A wide lens helps, since the street is narrow and the building long.

It sits on ulica Bohaterow Monte Cassino, the car-free main street, about five minutes' walk downhill from Sopot's SKM station and five minutes up from the pier. You cannot miss it. For wider transport, see the Sopot guide.

You are in the middle of everything central:

• The Spa Square and the pier, a few minutes downhill.
• The length of Monte Cassino, lined with cafes and shops.
• The Grand Hotel and the beach at the seafront.

It was completed in 2004, designed by the studio Szotynscy and Zaleski and inspired by the fairytale illustrations of Jan Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg.

Yes. It is a working shopping and dining complex, free to enter, with shops, cafes and restaurants. The interior is ordinary; the reason to go in is the food and drink rather than the architecture.