Sights in Pomerania
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Cathedral of Ss John the Baptist & John the Evangelist
Of the historical buildings outside the museum’s administration, the largest and most impressive is the giant Gothic Cathedral of SS John the Baptist & John the Evangelist. Work started around 1260 and was only completed at the end of the 15th century, by which time the church dominated the town’s skyline, as it still does today. Its massive tower houses Poland’s second-largest historic bell (after the one in the Wawel Royal Cathedral of Kraków), the Tuba Dei (God’s Trumpet). Cast in 1530, it weighs 7238kg and is rung for significant religious and national events. On the southern side of the tower, facing the Vistula, is a large 15th-century clock; its original face and…
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Ruins of the Castle
History buffs should take the opportunity to check out the remnants of the town's original medieval fortifications. To the east, in a triangle squeezed between the Old and New Towns, are the Ruins of the Castle, built by the Teutonic Knights. It was destroyed by the town's inhabitants in 1454 as a protest against the order's economic restrictions (they must have been really ticked off - those Teutonic castles were solidly built).
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Amber Museum
The Foregate is home to the Amber Museum, wherein you can marvel at the history of Baltic gold.
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St Mary's Church
Set in the middle of Main Town, St Mary's Church is believed to be the largest old brick church in the world. It is 105m long and 66m wide at the transept, and its massive squat tower is 78m high. About 25,000 people can be easily accommodated in its 5000-sq-metre (0.5-hectare) interior. It's a fascinating building to look at even from a few streets away, as its weathered red brickwork looms in a somewhat sinister manner over the much smaller, more thoroughly redecorated buildings at its feet.
The church was begun in 1343 and reached its present gigantic size in 1502. It served as the parish church for the Catholic congregation until the Reformation blew into Gdańsk, and …
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Oliwa Cathedral
An important and unusual example of ecclesiastical architecture, the Cathedral's first surprise is its façade, a striking composition of two slim octagonal Gothic towers with a central Baroque portion squeezed between them. You enter the church by going downstairs, for its floor is more than a metre below the external ground level. The interior looks extraordinarily long, mainly because of the unusual proportions of the building - the nave and chancel together are 90m long but only 8.3m wide.
At the far end of this 'tunnel' is a Baroque high altar (1688), while the previous oak-carved Renaissance altar (from 1606) is now in the left-hand transept. Opposite, in the right …
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Statue of Marian Rejewski
In the newer part of town, a block north of Hotel Pod Orłem on ul Gdańska, you can find a seated statue of celebrated Bydgoszcz citizen and mathematician Marian Rejewski (1905-1980). Conservatively depicted in suit and glasses, the great mathematician is seated modestly on a bench. Next to him is the likeness of an Enigma machine, the device he once defeated.
Mathematicians are usually stereotyped as bookish, unworldly creatures. But not so Bydgoszcz-born Rejewski, who took on the Nazi ciphers to become one of the heroes of WWII.
Rejewski was teaching at Poznań University in 1932, a year before Hitler came to power, when he was seconded to the Polish army's Cipher Bureau…
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Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes
The mother of all Szczecin monuments is the Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes . This vast, blocky building looms over the Old Town, but the square central courtyard and simple Renaissance-style decoration atop the walls has a certain understated grace (spot the repeated circular pattern that resembles the Yin and Yang symbol).
The castle was originally built in the mid-14th century and grew into its current form by 1577, but was destroyed by Allied carpet bombing in 1944 before being extensively restored.
Admire the colourful historic clockface from the courtyard, with its jester figure chiming in each new hour, then climb to the top of the 58.6m bell tower for a view of the…
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Old Bishops' Palace
In the southeastern corner of the courtyard of the Cathedral Hill complex is the Old Bishops' Palace. This is now Nicolaus Copernicus Museum's main exhibition space. On the ground floor are objects discovered during postwar archaeological excavations, while the other levels are largely devoted to the life and work of Copernicus, along with temporary displays and a collection of old telescopes.
The most interesting section is on the first floor, where modern artists' interpretations of the great man, in sculpture and oils, are presented, before you pass into the room containing books and other artefacts from his time.
Though Copernicus is essentially remembered for his astr…
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St Bridget's Church
Set immediately behind St Catherine's is St Bridget's Church. Founded 700 years ago, the building was almost completely destroyed in 1945, and until 1970 only the walls were left standing. There's almost nothing left of the prewar furnishings within, but amber fans will be interested in seeing the spectacular 174cm-high amber monstrance depicting the tree of life and the monumental high altar, a recent construction, which comprises a record-breaking 6500kg of the stuff.
Lech Wałęsa attended Mass here when he was an unknown electrician in the nearby shipyard. With the wave of strikes in 1980 the church became a strong supporter of the dockyard workers and its priest, Henr…
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Old Town Hall
Behind the Great Mill, across a small park, is the Old Town Hall, once the seat of the Old Town council. A well-proportioned Renaissance building crowned with a high central tower typical of its Flemish provenance, it was designed at the end of the 16th century by Antonius van Opbergen, the architect later responsible for the Great Arsenal. The brick structure is delicately ornamented in stone, including the central doorway and a frieze with the shields of Poland, Prussia and Gdańsk.
The Old Town Hall now houses the Baltic Sea Culture Centre and an exhibition hall. Go upstairs to see the foyer, notable for its rich decoration, partly assembled from old burghers' houses. …
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National Museum
Located in the vaulted interiors of the former Franciscan monastery, this is among the best museums in the country. It covers the broad spectrum of Polish and international art and crafts, boasting extensive collections of paintings, woodcarvings, gold and silverware, embroidery, fabrics, porcelain, faience, wrought iron and furniture.
The National Museum has the original figure of St George from the spire of the Court of the Fraternity of St George, an assortment of huge, elaborately carved Danzig-style wardrobes (typical of the city, from where they were sent all over the country) and several beautiful ceramic tiled stoves.
The first floor is given over to paintings, wi…
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St Nicholas' Church
The main attraction of the northern part of Main Town is St Nicholas' Church, one of the oldest in town. It was built by the Dominican order on its arrival from Kraków in 1227, but only reached its final shape at the end of the 15th century. Amazingly, it was the only central church to escape damage in WWII - according to one story the attacking Russian soldiers deliberately avoided shelling it, due to Orthodox believers' high regard for St Nicholas.
Unlike most of the other Gothic churches in the city, the interior of St Nick's is very richly decorated. The magnificent late-Renaissance high altar of 1647 first catches the eye, followed by the imposing Baroque organ made…
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St Catherine's Church
The largest monument of the Old Town is St Catherine's Church, which is the oldest church in Gdańsk, begun in the 1220s. It was the parish church for the whole town until St Mary's was completed. As is common, the church evolved over centuries and only reached its final shape in the mid-15th century (save for the Baroque top to the tower, added in 1634). The vaulted Gothic interior was originally covered with frescoes, fragments of which were discovered under a layer of plaster.
Note the huge painting (11m long) depicting the entry of Christ to Jerusalem, placed under the organ loft in the left-hand aisle, and the richly carved enclosure of the baptismal font (1585) in t…
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Town Hall
A short walk south of the castle will bring you to the 15th-century Gothic Town Hall, one of the finest buildings in the city. This is the only relic of the Old Town, having miraculously survived the near-total destruction of the district in WWII.
Szczecin never enjoyed the meticulous postwar reconstruction of other Polish cities, but the Old Town is finally being pieced back together: an attractive line of stylised burghers' houses has been constructed right behind the town hall, in striking contrast to the unbecoming communist-era blocks opposite. As the renewal inches along, the area has started to fill with fashionable cafés and upscale bars. The day the market squar…
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Foregate
Just behind the Upland Gate is a large 15th-century construction known as the Foregate. It consists of the Torture House (Katownia) to the west and a high Prison Tower (Wieża Więzienna) to the east, linked to one another by two walls. When the Upland Gate was built, the Foregate lost its defensive function and was turned into a jail. The Torture House then had an extra storey added as a court room and was topped with decorative Renaissance parapets.
A gallows was built on the square to the north, where public executions of condemned foreigners were held (locals had the 'privilege' of being hanged on Długi Targ). The Foregate was used as a jail till the mid-19th century.…
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Great Arsenal
To the west of St Mary's Church, ul Piwna (Beer St) ends at the Great Arsenal. This being Gdańsk, even such an apparently prosaic building as an armoury is an architectural gem. It's the work of Antoon van Opberghen, built at the beginning of the 17th century and, like most of Gdańsk's architecture, clearly shows the influence of the Low Countries. The main eastern façade, framed within two side towers, is floridly decorated and guarded by figures of soldiers on the top.
Military motifs predominate, and the city's coat of arms guards the doorways. A small stone structure rather like a well, in the middle of the façade, is the lift that was used for hoisting heavy ammun…
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Roads to Freedom Exhibition
The Roads to Freedom exhibition is a collection of multimedia displays and artefacts illustrating Poland’s turbulent path to democracy, from the 1956 uprisings to martial law and the collapse of communism. At the time of research it was about to move from its former home in the shipyards to this location, attached to the Solidarity HQ. The exhibition is a poignant reminder of just how much has changed over the last 60 years, and of just how much dedication and sacrifice went into achieving that change. It’s well captioned in English, and is something every visitor to Gdańsk should see – it rounds out the Main Town’s Renaissance splendour with the knowledge of recent event…
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National Museum’s Department of Early Art
The National Museum’s Department of Early Art is located in the vaulted interiors of the former Franciscan monastery. Among the best museums in the country, it covers the broad spectrum of Polish and international art and crafts, boasting extensive collections of paintings, woodcarvings, gold and silverware, embroidery, fabrics, porcelain, faience, wrought iron and furniture. It has the original figure of St George from the spire of the Court of the Fraternity of St George, an assortment of huge, elaborately carved Danzig-style wardrobes (typical of the city, from where they were sent all over the country) and several beautiful ceramic tiled stoves.
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Westerplatte
Westerplatte is a long peninsula at the entrance to the harbour. When Gdańsk became a free city after WWI, Poland was permitted to maintain a post at this location, at the tip of the port zone. It served both trading and military purposes and had a garrison to protect it. WWII broke out here at dawn on 1 September 1939, when the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein began shelling the Polish guard post. The garrison, which numbered just 182 men, held out for seven days before surrendering.
The site is now a memorial, with some of the ruins left as they were after the bombardment, plus a massive monument put up in memory of the defenders.
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Fountain
West of the town hall, opposite the post office, is an intriguing small Fountain built in 1914. Bronze-cast frogs sit on its rim, admiring a statue of a violin-playing boy known as Janko Muzykant, Toruń's very own answer to the Pied Piper story. Legend has it that a witch once came to the town, but wasn't welcomed by the locals. In revenge, she invoked a curse, and the town was invaded by frogs.
The mayor offered a sackful of gold and his daughter to anyone who would rescue the town. A humble peasant boy then appeared and began to play his rustic fiddle. The frogs, enchanted by the melodies, followed him to the woods and the town was saved.
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Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers
Just in front of the shipyard gates, on Solidarity Square, the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers commemorates the workers killed in the riots of 1970. Unveiled on 16 December 1980, 10 years after the massacre, the monument is a set of three 42m-tall steel crosses, with a series of bronze bas-reliefs in their bases. The first monument in a communist regime to commemorate the regime's victims, it became an instant symbol and landmark.
One of the plates contains a fragment of a poem by late Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz: 'You who wronged a simple man/Do not feel safe. A poet remembers./You can kill one, but another is born.'
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Skansen
The small village of Wdzydze Kiszewskie, 16km south of Kościerzyna, boasts an interesting skansen featuring typical Kashubian architecture. Established in 1906 by the local schoolmaster, this was Poland’s first open-air museum of traditional architecture. Pleasantly positioned on the lakeside, it now contains a score of buildings collected from central and southern Kashubia, including cottages, barns, a school, a windmill and an 18th-century church used for Sunday Mass. Some of the interiors are fitted with authentic furnishings, implements and decorations, showing how the Kashubians lived a century or two ago.
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Parish Church
To the west, just off the Rynek, the metal front door of the 16th-century brick Parish Church depicts scenes from the city's 1000-year history. Within is a gilded Baroque high altar with a 1466 painting of the Virgin Mary. What's really surprising, however, is the church's colour scheme - its interior is done out in vivid purple and orange shades that would have appealed to adherents of 1960s flower power.
You may want to keep your sunglasses on! The illustrations on the walls date from the 1920s when the church was redecorated, having been commandeered in the 19th century for use as storage by various passing military forces.
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Golden Gate
To the east of The Foregate is the Golden Gate. Designed by Abraham van den Block, son of the decorator of the Upland Gate, and built in 1612, it's a sort of triumphal arch ornamented with a double-storey colonnade and topped with eight allegorical statues. Today's figures are postwar copies of the 1648 originals.
The four figures on the side of the Prison Tower represent Peace, Liberty, Wealth and Fame, for which Gdańsk was always struggling to achieve against foreign powers (sometimes including the Polish kings). The sculptures on the opposite side symbolise the burghers' virtues: Wisdom, Piety, Justice and Concord.
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Upland Gate
The traditional entry point for kings was Upland Gate, at the western end of the Royal Way. It was built in 1574 as part of the new fortifications, which were constructed outside the city's medieval walls to strengthen the system. Authorities weren't happy with the original structure, so in 1586 they commissioned Flemish artist, Willem van den Block, to embellish it, covering it with sandstone slabs and ornamenting it with 3 coats of arms: Prussia (unicorns), Poland (angels) and Gdańsk (lions).
You'll find Gdańsk's shield, invariably featuring heraldic lions, on countless public buildings throughout the city.
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