Sightseeing in Gdańsk
Long Street And Long Market
This is the main pedestrian street in town, closed by 2 huge stone gateways at the 2 ends, the Green Gate at the western side and the Golden Gate (Brama Złota) at the eastern end. Every house here is worth a deep looking at, they are all beautiful and perfectly restored. Close to the western end the street gets wider becoming the big square Długi Targ, where the town hall of the 14th century (rebuilt after WWII) is really impressive.
The Hall of the Main City
It was built between 1379 and 1492. The spire over the 80m high tower, put up by master Dirk Daniels from Zealand, is crowned with a gilded metal figure of King Sigismund Augustus. The three wings of the building around the yard as we see it today were completed in 1593-96. The interior is decorated in the Dutch Mannerist style.
St. Mary's Church
St. Mary's Church is said to be the largest brick church in the world. Its Gothic interior has a capacity of up to 25.000 people and it is home to an enormous astronomical clock (1464). The history of the church dates back to the 14th century, but as with most other buildings of the city centre it was severely damaged in WWII. I highly recommend climbing the more than 400 steps up to the top of the 78 m tall tower. The effort will be rewarded with breathtaking views over Gdansk.
St. Mary's Street
Beyond any doubt one of the most beautiful parts of Gdańsk. Starting at St Mary's Church at one end, it leads onto Long Embankment through the Medieval St Mary's Gate. The street is one of historic Gdansk gems. The narrow houses, with their terraced entrances and richly decorated facades, once belonged to affluent merchants and goldsmiths. The picturesque scenery of the place has for ages inspired men of letters and painters.
The Crane
The Crane is probably Gdansk's most famous landmark. It was completed in 1444, but seriously damaged during WWII and restored between 1955 and 1962. It used to be the largest crane of its kind in the world. The Crane served to handle heavy goods and to erect masts on ships. It was operated by men walking inside the huge wooden wheels. Nowadays the Crane is part of the Central Maritime Museum. Directions: The Crane is located on the bank of the river Motlawa; just in the heart of the touristy city centre of Gdansk.
St. Dominica Fair in Gdańsk
It is biggest and oldest Gdansk performance. History of fair reaches st. Dominica XIII century. On the last Saturday of July for Gdansk pulled off the numerous German crowd, French, English, even Spanish and Portuguese tradesmen. It curled for harbor over 400 ships with French and Spanish wine, silk, jams, Portuguese spicy seasonings, tin and English material. The circus actor from all the world, acrobats, magicians and theatrical corpses where not missing either. Today the fair is highlight for tourists and also for inhabitants, it connects the business fair with rich program of cultural performance and sports. Calendar of event includes wide fan of gala, concerts and competitions. The city is possessed for 3 weeks by three indivisibly: Neptune, Hermes and Muses of Apollo. There are a lot of mercantile stalls and theatrical corpse in the streets. Can be heard old marine music and gypsy romance, old Gdansk music and charming old instruments. The smell of overseas sweets is implicated with local bread. Everyone will dig out nice reminder into an artist stall or on valuable old things trade. Swing of Gdansk fair is compared with so loud European performances as Munich Oktoberfest or Hamburg Weinachtsmarkt. Cheerful, culturally and tasty.
Old Town
It is one of the most beautiful old towns. There are plenty of colourful tenement houses there, a lot of small shops with the "gold of the north Poland" which is the amber. You can eat good lunch in one of the restaurants there and just have a great walk around. You can visit the Church of Virgin Mary and have the nice of view of panorama of Gdansk from the top of church's tower. You can find there a lot of nice art galleries and shops where you can buy the jewellery with the amber and also a lot of other nice stuffs.
Artus Court and Neptune Fountain
The Artus Court (Dwor Artusa) was built in Gothic style between 1476 and 1481. It served as a meeting place for rich burghers and the merchant guilds. In front of the Artus Court the famous Neptune Fountain (Fontanna Neptuna) can be found. The fountain with its bronze statue of the sea god was erected in 1633. It symbolises the bond between Gdansk and the sea.
Oliwa Cathedral
This Holy Trinity, Blessed Virgin Mary, and St Bernard's Church was first erected as a Cistercian shrine back in the 13th c. Reconstructed in 1350 after a great fire, it re-emerged in the Gothic style and has remained almost unaltered ever since. The Gothic interior was extremely damaged in the 1577 fire and was replaced with the Baroque fixtures we can admire today. Structurally, the cathedral is a triple-aisle, vaulted basilica built on the plan of the Latin cross. Oliwa Cathedral is 107m long, which makes it the longest church in Poland. The decorative gem is the Rococo organ, from 1763-1788. When built, the instrument was the largest in Europe.
St.Bridget's Church
Nearby the Wielki Mlyn there is St.Bridget's church, which is not so interesting about architecture, but about what that church meant for Polish politics and freedom! It was the local church of Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Solidarność movement, born here in Gdańsk during the 80s. Now the political importance of this church is much less than in the past, but it's still an important monument to Polish freedom.
The Grand Mill
It was originally built in the mid 14th century by Teutonic Knights and used to mill corn for more than 600 years! It is the biggest one in medieval Europe, and it was working till the 30s.
It has been converted recently into an upmarket shopping centre.
Gdańsk Shipyards
Here is where Solidarność was really born and this was the crucible of the political struggles of the 80s.
There are now some memorial monuments to the shipyard workers killed during riots of the 70s and 80s.
The shipyards are totally unprofitable and still now there are big problems between workers and the new democratic Goverments.
Candy Manufacturing
Fancy doing something different?Go to CIUCIU- a candy shop to buy some lollipops in any shape you can imagine (a toothbrush with toothpaste or a naked sexbomb- you may order any shape and size). What is more- you can also see the whole process of making candies(but phone in advance to get to know what time the show is) and taste them after watching. Very nice place and worth visiting!
