Gdansk

Gdansk is a small Polish port on the edge of the Baltic Sea. It’s not one of the great cities of the world. It’s not a cultural capital. It’s not a gastronomic powerhouse. But it is one of the most beautiful cities we’ve ever seen.

Who’d have thought? We remembered Gdansk as the place where, in the 1980s, Lech Walesa led a shipyard strike that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. And that was everything we knew about it.

But the same people who’d recommended we visit Krakow had also described Gdansk as a ‘must-see.’ They were right about Krakow, we thought, so why not give Gdansk a go?

We did, and what we found was a city so lovely we think it deserves a place on every traveller’s bucket-list.

Gdansk was once the largest and richest city in the Kingdom of Poland

The port city's position on the Baltic put it at the crossroads of important commercial routes; money flowed in and Gdansk flourished

For Gdansk, the 16th and 17th centuries were the 'golden age'

Three centuries later, during WWII, Gdansk was devastated - all that remained were the brick facades of the city's buildings

Later the facades were carefully restored and, behind them, new structures were built

The post-war work was carried out by Polish artisans who recreated the facades of the original 17th-century Dutch architects and sculptors

 

During the golden age, the Dutch had flooded into the city in huge numbers; Gdansk was a wealthy trading port and the Dutch were skilled traders

 

 

The Dutch left their mark; it's why Gdansk looks a lot like Copenhagen, and even a bit like Amsterdam (the buildings are tall and narrow because land tax was paid on street frontage - the wider the house, the higher the tax)

Very few parts of Gdansk were spared the destruction of the war

Two structures that did survive were Neptune's Fountain (1615) and behind it, the merchants' meeting place, Artus Court (which had already been reconstructed in 1617)

Yet knowing that Gdansk is almost entirely 'new for old' does little to dent the city's charm

 

 

 

 

 

Unlike most medieval cities, Gdansk doesn't have a central market place

Here all roads lead not to a central point, but rather to the all-important river

This is the 'Long Market', the wide pedestrian street that stretches from the old city gate down to the river; for centuries the Long Market has been the commercial market place

There are gates at the river-end of all the old streets; this one, Mariacka, is one of the prettiest streets in Gdansk

Wealthy merchants built their houses here, each one with a raised, stone terrace at the front - a kind of outdoor dining room for the merchants and their families

The idea was to impress neighbours and passersby with the quantity and quality of food the merchant could afford

There's another interesting thing about these terraces - each one has an ornate rain gutter that carries water from the roof down to the street

Known as pukers or spewers, each one is a unique dragon sculpture

These days the merchants have long gone and Mariacka is lined with cafes and shops selling amber jewellery

At the top end of Mariacka you find St Mary's Church - ask any local and they'll tell you it's the world's largest brick cathedral

Certainly from almost every angle, St Mary's dominates the city

We stayed in a little house right in the centre of the old town - it's the pink house with the red roof there in the middle

It was a great location - the front windows overlooked Browar Piwna, Brewers Street

And at the end of that street, the Great Armoury, a masterpiece of Dutch Renaissance architecture

This is not a masterpiece of Dutch Renaissance architecture, but it's a building of great significance nonetheless

On 24 March 1959, here in the Rudy Kot club, a band played the country's first 'big beat' concert and Polish rock 'n' roll was born

A very different historic event - on 1 September 1939 shots fired from a German battleship onto Gdansk's Westerplatte Peninsular marked the start of the Second World War

Each year moving ceremonies are held to remember the Polish soldiers who fiercely defended Westerplatte

And also those who defended an attack on the Polish Post Office that began on the same day

We were in Gdansk for the 80th anniversary of the start of the war, and for the 30th anniversary of the end communism in Poland - something that can be attributed directly to the Solidarity movement

In August 1980, 17,000 workers took control of the Lenin Shipyard over a range of issues including workers' rights, low wages and rising food prices

The strikers posted their list of demands on the shipyard gate; the demands included the right to free trade unions and a constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech

The action lasted 17 days - during that time the strikers received strong support from American trade unions and from the Polish Pope John Paul II

Eventually the Polish government agreed to open negotiations with Solidarity; it was a victory that changed the world, helping to bring down the Communist government in Poland and, ultimately, leading to the collapse of Communism in other European countries

We didn't leave Gdansk thinking it was a place we wanted to live, but we did leave thinking it was one of the loveliest cities we've seen - add it to your list 🙂