Gdansk Favorites

4 more images

Favorite thing: A walk along this pedestrian street along the western bank of the Old Motlawa and the Motlawa river is definetely the site I would take someone who had never been to Gdansk before. There are many reasons. Let me list a few:
- amazing views at the river and the granaries on the opposite side,
- charming restaurants and pubs along,
- crowds of people passing by,
- the Crane - the world's largest piece of port handling equipment in 15th century,
- the departure point of a ferry to Westerplatte and to the Central Maritime Museum on the opposite side of the river.

Fondest memory: Sunset over the Motlawa river.

4 more images

Favorite thing: It's called Mariacka (St. Mary's) street. It's a place to watch both locals and mainly visitors, to do some shopping (touristy staff mostly) and to look at typical for Gdansk architecture: burgher houses with fenced, stone, front terraces.

Fondest memory: It's strange, but my foundest memory referring to Mariacka street is the unique exposition: "Nile Valley. Archeology and etnography." in the Archeological Museum. Details in my "Views, amber, hustory and Sudan" tip here

4 more images

Favorite thing: St. Mary's basilica is the world's largest brick church but its size is not well seen from the street level. To see how huge the edifice is go inside or look at the basilica from the top. Go to the one of many observation platforms throughout the city located in:
- the tower of St. Catherine's church - my recommendation (amazing tower clocks museum there),
- the Torture Tower (temporarily closed for renovations - 2005),
- the Main Town Hall Tower,
- the Tower of the Archeological Museum building.

Fondest memory: I was amazed by huge pipe organs in the basilica. Welcome to my Things to Do tips for details about the instrument and the St. Mary's Church (formally Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Kosciol Mariacki in Polish).

4 more images

Favorite thing: The main east-west axis of the old town, that is the Long Street, broadens at its eastern end to form the longitudinal square called the Long Market. It is the heart of Gdansk old town now and in the past. Crowds of locals and visitors, numerous pubs, restaurants, street stalls, local shops and amazing architecture of burgher houses make this place unforgettable.

4 more images

Favorite thing: This amazing masterpiece of art, created by Stelzer in 1545, is covered by 520 multi-coloured tiles. The stove is 11 meters high, 2.5 meter wide at the base and it weights 11 tons. It's displayed in the Large Hall of the Artus Court at Dlugi Rynek = Long Market 43/44.

Fondest memory: Not the size itself but the tiles amazed me most. Each tile depicts a person in order following the social hierarchy of the 16th century Europe: monarchs and their wives on the top, noble citizens below and casual Gdansk citizens on the bottom. Nowadays, would you put our politicians on the top or on the bottom?

Unfortunatelly the upper tiles are not well seen from the below. Shouldn't they add an elevator/lift for visitors or better computers with software to show each of them enlarged with some description? I would add a small cinema/movie theater for visitors to the Artus House with a short multi-language (wireless headphones) movie as the introduction to the visit of the museum. And the staff of the museum could be dressed in costumes of the era, don't you think so? Add some silent music of the era played from hidden speakers.

4 more images

Favorite thing: The main and the most representative street of the old town of Gdansk is called Ulica (abbrevation ul.) Dluga which means Long Street. The street is closed for traffic and crowded with pedestrians. Although it's only about 400 m long, it took me a few hours to see, visit and taste some of its attractions: food, museums, architecture etc. It's probably the only street in the old Gdansk without any church put along. Commerce of the wealthy city instead of any religion had to rule between the Golden Gate in the west and the Long Market (Dlugi Targ) with the Green Gate in the east.

For details on what to see and do walking along Dluga Street read my what to do, restaurants and shopping tips, please.



Fondest memory: ARCHITECTURE
Renovated recently, high and thin front facades of the burgher houses remind me some other old Hanseatic cities like Tallin (Reval in the past) in Estonia. I amazed numerous roccoco portals, gothic mouldings, decorative statues and original porticoes.

MUSEUMS
There are two, I recommend to visit:
- the Uphagen House (# 12)
- the History of Gdansk Museum (# 47)

FOOD
There are a lot of restaurants, pubs, patisseries etc. with tables put along Dluga Street. It's the best place to watch both locals and visitors, both from Poland and from all over the world. I heard English, German, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian and once, a surprise, Greek there.

SHOPPING
There is an unique mix of really local and kitchy, touristy shops and boutiques along Dluga Street. Local business is fast growing and changing mostly in good direction, I do believe.

2 more images

Favorite thing: I was surprised about how many famous people were born in Gdansk or have lived in the Tri-City region. The most famous person of Gdansk is of course Lech Walesa; the founder of Soildarity (Solidarnosc) and former president of Poland.
Other people from Gdansk include the philosoph Arthur Schopenhauer, the scientist Daniel Fahrenheit, the astronomer Johannes Hevelius and the writer Günter Grass whose novel "The tin drum" plays in Gdansk.
The actor Klaus Kinski was born in Sopot and the Polish writer Joseph Conrad left Poland from Gdynia where a monument was raised to honour him.

2 more images

Favorite thing: Gdansk is situated at the mouth of the Motlawa river which is also known under its German name Mottlau. The Motlawa has a length of almost 65 km and has several branches in the city of Gdansk.
The banks of the river invite tourists for a stroll along the nice buildings. Further outside of the city centre the arms and canals of the river are lined with industrial estates.