- Quick Reservations
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Call our reservation hotline from: (weekdays 7am - 11pm CET) (weekends 9am - 8pm CET) +48 22 820.9227
UK callers, you can call us for 10p per minute on:
 0871 733 3033
From the U.S.A. call Toll Free
 1-866-387-6420
From Germany you can call us at toll free number:
Last Minute (arrivals today only) +48 22 887 98 00 / 01
+48 (0) 503 312 686
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- About City
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- GDANSK – THE AMBER JEWEL AT THE BALTIC SEA
- Gdansk – 458.000 inhabitants, 6th biggest city in Poland, Pomorskie Province (54.36°N, 18.64°E)
- Famous citizens: Filip Clever (geographer), Jan Hevelius (astronomer), Gabriel D. Fahrenheit (physicist), Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher), Günther Grass (writer – Nobel Price), Klaus Kinski (actor, born in Sopot) Lech Walesa (politician)
- You will find Gdansk different from Krakow and Warsaw. Why? Poland is not a historically homogenous country – you will feel it if you stay in Poland longer than a few days.
- Krakow is the old royal city - it blends influence of Italian Renaissance and humanism, pious exaltation of catholic churches, memories on merchants coming from Asia, humanists and the cozy settled-down charm of Austro-Hungarian Empire. Warsaw is the business centre: not a place to ponder, but to act – booming, inspiring, corporate, classicist and Eastern (apart from its lovely ancient core).
- While Krakow became after the Partition of Poland in the end of the 18th century Austrian and Warsaw Russian, Gdansk had a long-lasting tradition of being a free city – i.e. Freistadt Danzig. It used to be a harbour through which the larger part of Europe had been supplied with grain. Each year over 200 ships came to Gdansk for merchandise which had arrived along the Vistula from all over the whole Poland. The population was in its majority of German origin – the neuralgic importance of this city was reflected in the fact that it was in Gdansk where World War II started on September 1, 1939.
- Gdansk owes much to its seaside location: Christianization of the pagan Baltic region started from here (the city was founded in 997 by St. Adalbert – Wojciech, the Bishop of Prague), in the 14th century it became one of the most important centres of the Hanseatic League, the biggest mediaeval mercantile organization in Europe that ruled the whole region of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Until the modern times Gdansk was a business giant comparable to Hamburg, Riga or Italian maritime city republics.
- After the end of World War II the population became purely Polish and similarly to Warsaw the centre had to be massively rebuilt. In 1980s the Solidarity movement was founded here by Lech Walesa (born in Gdansk in 1943) and proved to be one of the forces which brought about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Now it is a part of the Tri-City with total population close to 800.000 inhabitants, a university town, dockyards and industrial centre.
- RECOMMENDED MINIMUM TIME OF STAY
- 1 day – a cursory sightseeing of the Old Town with a short excursion to either Sopot or Gdynia
- 2-3 days – visit of the town centre with possibility of half or one-day trips to Gdynia and Sopot
- 5-7 days – extensive exploration of the Tri-City, Westerplatte, participation to cultural events with possibility of trips to Kaszuby (the lake region), S?owia?ski National Park, seaside and Teutonic Castles
- MAIN SIGHTS
- St Mary´s Church
- One of the biggest brick Gothic churches in the world: 105m long, the main tower is 77.6m high. The stone Pieta from about 1410, a copy of the Last Judgment by Hans Memling, astronomical clock built by Hans Düringer in 1464-1470.
- The Royal Chapel
- Erected in 1678-1681 to the design of the royal architect, Tylman of Gameren. The Baroque sculptures on the facade were carved by Andreas Schleter.
- The Artus Court
- Built in 1477. A splendid Renaissance building in Long Market was the meeting place of the Gdansk patriciate. Open to public. In front of the palace the Neptune’s fountain – a symbol of Gdansk.
- Long Street and Long Market
- The Royal Route: a line of the most beautiful buildings in Gdansk (tall, Flemish-like houses with narrow facades) – they start at the Golden Gate and end at the Green Gate. The route used to mark the residential area of the richest Gda?sk patriciate.
- Fortification System
- A large fortification system encircling the town: The Green Gate, The Golden Gate, The Highland Gate.
- St Mary´s Street
- Picturesque street reminding about the old Gdansk. Collection of houses which belonged to affluent merchants and goldsmiths. Now the trade centre of amber shops.
- The Crane
- A port crane and city gate. The structure was given its present shape in 1442-1444. Inside, a huge wooden wheel was man-powered, that is set in motion by men walking inside it. The crane served not only the cargo reloading purposes, it was also a device to put up ship masts.
- Museums in the centre of Gdansk: Sea museum, National museum, Gdansk history museum, Ethnographic museum, Interior furnishings museum, Church clocks museum
- Westerplatte – a large monument on the place where World War started
- TRICITY
- Sopot (45.000), the most fashionable seaside resort in pre-war Germany and now the most famous Polish entertainment centre at the Baltic Sea, art-nouveau villas, beach, promenade, funfair pier.
- Gdynia (270.000), first polish harbourin 1920s commissioned by Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, dockyards, “oceanarium” – sea aquarium, monument of Joseph Conrad, check in the summer for sea food.
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