Travel Guide Gdańsk

"The pearl of the Baltic": this is how Gdańsk, a great metropolis and a great historical port with a glorious past, is referred to. Better known by its German name of Danzig, this Hanseatic city is one of the most prosperous in Europe in the Middle Ages, queen of the region, controlling all the outlets of Central Europe and the entry into Poland. A city of merchants, cosmopolitan, German, Polish, but also Kashubian, Jewish, Dutch, Swedish or even Scottish, its tearing apart in the 20th century embodies the bankruptcy of Europe, like the novel The Drum by Günther Grass, one of his sons. For it was here that the Second World War began, with the German attack on the bay of Gdańsk. Although the war damaged it, the efforts of Communist Poland to rebuild it bore fruit and the old town regained its former splendour. The cosmopolitanism of the past is swallowed up forever, Gdańsk is now Polish; but trade is flourishing again, the Baltic has regained its role between Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Russia and Germany. A symbol in contemporary history of a working class Poland that courageously gained its independence, via Solidarność and the first free Polish president Lech Wałęsa, the Hanseatic city has been crumbling under concrete, industries and motorways since the 1950s. But the Trójmiasto remains a fascinating ensemble: with the rich old town, an oasis in a highly urban environment, with Sopot, an elegant seaside resort with the longest jetty in Europe, the most beautiful Polish window on the Baltic, and with Gdynia, a concrete forest, from HLM, a large port anchored in the second half of the 20th century. The three cities form a 35 km long agglomeration, rich in contrasts, giving a simultaneous view of the various aspects of Poland.