Places of Interest - Poland

The centre:

For tourists, the center ("Glowne Miasto") of Gdansk is the biggest tourist attraction - it actually looks exactly like 300 to 400 years ago despite the fact that it was destroyed to the ground in WWII. Here you can find the "Royal way" which is one of the three in Poland - this is the shortest of the three with only 500 meters but is perhaps the most beautiful because it’s flanked by the most beautiful buildings in terms of architecture. The Polish king traditionally entered the city through the "Brama Wyzynna" gate which was restored in the 16th century by a Flemish architect (which is clear when you see it). If you walk through the gate you come to the "Ul Dluga", perhaps one of the most impressive streets in the country. This cobblestoned street is full of beautiful old buildings including the town hall. Another street you can not miss is "Dlugi Targ" (large market) where many market stalls and restaurants are situated - you will not be surprised that the market was here in old times. The house with the most beautiful facade is the "golden" house. Besides beautiful architecture, Gdansk also has an almost Dutch canal with a gigantic crane that transferred goods from ships in the department stores that were built along the water (just like in Amsterdam, for example). Do not forget to take a look in the tiny but super cozy little street "Ul Mariacka" and in the "Bazylika Mariacka" which (according to legend) should be the largest old brick church in the world.

The old town:

Remarkably, the old city and the center in the city "Gdanks" are not the same and the old city is not the highlight of the city either. The reason for this lies in the fact that the center was a place by the German Order (the Teutones), while in the old town the somewhat poorer Poles lived. This section also had no defenses and was to be rebuilt in a different form after WWII and not as detailed as the center. Perhaps worth a look at is the "St. Bridget's "church where old president" Lech Walesa "often went to church before he became “famous". The speakers and church itself were great proponents of the protest movement. You can also go and see a very large old mill built by the Teutonic knights in the old town. Built in the 14th century it was the largest mill in Medieval Europe. In order to show your respect of the rebels, insurgents or whatever you may call them, you can take a look at the ports of Gdansk. It was here in 1970 that riots and demonstrations against Communism took off and were ruthlessly penetrated by violence from the Russian side. Ten years later, the protests were structured by an electrician named Lech Walesa.

Westerplatte

Westerplatte is a long peninsula at the entrance of the river or port of Gdansk about 7 kilometers north of the center. When Gdansk became a free city after WWI, Poland was allowed to take/occupy the "WesterPlatte" for military and trade purposes and placed a garrison here to protect and guard it. At dawn on September 1, 1939, the Germans shot the first bullets here coming from the old battleship "Schleswig-Holstein" which lay in the river and immediately afterwards the attack began from soldiers coming from the city itself. The second world war had begun. The 182 Polish soldiers of the garrison, heavily in the minority, were totally trapped for a week but continued fighting until they finally saw their fate and surrendered. You can still see an old (reconstructed) guardhouse that serves as a (small) museum and some other foundations and ruins of old log houses, ammunition warehouses and barracks. There is also an immense memorial to commemorate the victims.

Not surprisingly, a port was built in prehistoric times on the site where nowadays Gdansk is located - on the border between Prussian (Baltic) and Slavic grounds. The Dukes of "Pommerellen" declared themselves independent of the Polish crown in 1227 and sought connection to the Roman-German empire. From the 13th century the city was flooded by German traders who mostly came from the area of "Lubeck". They would set up "Danzig" to the Western model and the city soon became a member of the "Hanseatic League" and outraged the Danish-Swedish trade monopoly on the Baltic Sea. After the death of the dukes in 1294, a struggle broke out between Poland, Pomerania, Brandenburg and the Teutonic Order for supreme authority over the city and access to the Baltic Sea. The order that became increasingly powerful and originating from the then Prussia won the battle and a new stream of merchants and craftsmen from northern Germany followed the Netherlands. Between 1410 and 1466 armed conflicts would break out in the last year, after the defeat of the German Order in the Thirteen Years' War, leading to the definitive recognition of the Polish king as - symbolic - sovereign. Meanwhile, the golden age of the city started and it is still dominant in its present appearance. The architecture of the many Renaissance façades and public buildings is very similar to that of Amsterdam and Antwerp. By 1630 the population had reached 60,000 and Danzig had thus become the undisputed metropolis of eastern Central Europe. 

But prosperity declined again in the 17th century through the Thirty Years War, which devastated Germany. In 1793, after the Second Polish Division, Danzig was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, which militarily confirmed the city in front of Napoleon, which in 1813 put it on a siege and a partial devastation. In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles decided that Germany should relinquish the entire province of West Prussia and its capital Danzig to the newly founded Poland. Political agitation and strikes by the Danziger dockworkers disproved Polish claims. A compromise was found in the establishment of a Free State Freie Stadt Danzig under the supervision of the League of Nations. This free state counted 330,000 inhabitants of which 94% called themselves German and only 6% wanted to declare himself Polish. Poland was granted free access in the port, with trade and customs offices, and management of the rail network. However, it tried to paralyze the city economically by building a competitive port with French capital just outside the free-state area in Gdynia, also a naval port, which soon imported and exported an equally large ship tonnage. The Nazis already took over the administration in 1934, although the League of Nations regulation dampened the implementation of their legislation. Hitler simply used the port as an "ordinary" German port not interested in international treaties. On 1 September 1939 the German Navy attacked the Polish customs offices at the port: (de Westerplatte). Poland and Germany declared war on each other and France and England met their treaty obligations of military assistance to Poland. With that, the Second World War had broken out. During the war many Poles from the city were deployed as a work slave in the port of the city.

The fall of Danzig:  

In all, a quarter of the Danziger’s were removed (or left themselves) because of the war. The center of the city was completely in ruins. The city Danzig, with the former Polish Corridor and the whole of West Prussia was assigned to the People's Republic of Poland. In 1948, the last few thousand German survivors were expelled, while in the meantime the city filled up with new Polish immigrants, especially from the areas that Poland had to relinquish to the Soviet Union, now located in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Despite the disastrous situation of Poland, the restoration of the historic city center was quickly started, which often amounted to a total reconstruction, in which the façade rows were even shifted backwards in order to provide more space for the street-width. The goal, however, was not to make the city look like it was before the war, but as before 1793 when it formally still belonged to Poland. During the reconstruction, which, incidentally, was limited to the facades, all historical German-language façade inscriptions were omitted and the aim was to omit as many references to Germany and German culture as possible. Flemish-Dutch characteristics were extra emphasized as compensation. The new Gdańsk would once again become an important port city; the shipbuilding industry flourished under the communist regime. In 1970, the second major strike in the port broke out against the Communist regime when 44 people died. Ten years later they went on strike again under the leadership of the electrician "Lech Walesa" who later became the first freely elected democratic president of the country. This strike resulted in negotiations with the government regarding renewed rules.