Gdańsk (Kashub. Gduńsk; German. Danzig; Latin. Gedanum, Dantiscum;
Dutch. Danswijk) - a city with county rights in northern Poland in the
Pomeranian Voivodeship, located on the Baltic Sea at the mouth of the
Motława River to the Vistula River on the Gulf of Gdańsk. A cultural,
scientific and economic center as well as a transport hub in northern
Poland, the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. A maritime economy
center with a large commercial port.
Gdańsk, with 486,022
inhabitants, ranks sixth in Poland in terms of population, and seventh
in terms of area - 263.44 km². The center of the Tri-City agglomeration,
also known as the Gdańsk agglomeration, together with Gdynia and Sopot
make up the Tri-City.
It is a city with over a thousand years of
history, whose identity over the centuries has been shaped under the
influence of various cultures. Gdańsk was also the largest city of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a royal and Hanseatic city, it had the
right to actively participate in the act of electing the king, and in
the 16th century it was the richest in the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. The citizenship of Gdańsk gave the privilege of owning
land. It belonged to the independent territory of the city of Gdańsk and
was located in the second half of the 16th century in the Pomeranian
Voivodeship. The city was also an important cultural center. Gdańsk is
considered a symbolic place of the outbreak of World War II and the
beginning of the fall of communism in Central Europe. There are numerous
architectural monuments in the city, there are many institutions and
cultural institutions.
The world's largest international fair of
amber and amber products, Amberif, is held in Gdańsk.
Gdańsk is one of the most valuable historical complexes in Poland,
despite the fact that almost the entire historical downtown was rebuilt
after the last war, and a significant part of the movable monuments was
destroyed or dispersed.
Significant monuments of Gdańsk are
located in the Main Town (Main Town Hall, Artus Court, Uphagen House)
and the Old Town (Wielki Młyn, Old Town Hall, St. Catherine's Church),
the main ones are located along the Royal Road, the representative
Gdańska-Długa Street. In the Main Town there is also the Basilica of St.
Mary of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - the largest medieval
brick temple in the world. The Great Synagogue existed until 1939.
Important places in Gdańsk also include Westerplatte, Wisłoujście
Fortress and Oliwa, where the arch-cathedral complex is located.
The architectural monuments of Gdańsk come from different periods. They
can be classified as:
Gothic buildings - the remains of city
fortifications, several churches, town halls, the Great Mill and the
Court of the Brotherhood of St. George. Some of these monuments are on
the European Route of Brick Gothic.
Renaissance buildings - the Old
Town Hall, some town houses, the Artus Court, the Green Gate and the
Torture House
mannerist buildings - the Great Armory, the Golden
Gate, the Golden Tenement House, the House of Naturalists
baroque
buildings - the Royal Chapel, some town houses, the Abbots' Palace in
Oliwa
Artists such as Willem, Abraham and Izaak van den Blocke,
Antoni van Obberghen and Andreas Schlüter worked here during the
Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Gdańsk is one of the largest cultural centers in Poland. There are,
among others, theaters (Wybrzeże Theatre, Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre,
Municipal Miniatura Theatre), Baltic Philharmonic, Baltic Opera, seven
cinemas, libraries, museums and art galleries.
Festivals and
cyclical events take place here, including the Shakespeare Festival,
Gdańsk Carillon Festival, Mozartiana, Solidarity of Arts, Gdańsk Jazsowe
Nights, Jazz Jantar Festival, Siesta Festival, St. Dominika, the Feta
Street Theater Festival and the Baltic Days of Jewish Culture.
Among the museums, the Gdańsk Museum, the National Museum in Gdańsk, the
National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk and the Archaeological Museum in
Gdańsk stand out. There is an early music ensemble Cappella Gedanensis,
as well as choirs (Polish Chamber Choir and academic choirs).
There are several public and private art galleries in Gdańsk, e.g.
Gdańsk City Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art "Łaźnia" and Galeria
Wyspa. Other important cultural institutions include the Baltic Sea
Cultural Centre, Żak Club, Gdańsk Archipelago of Culture, Youth Palace
in Gdańsk, as well as Centrum Hewelianum.
The most famous works
of art in the city include The Last Judgment triptych by Hans Memling.
The work is in the National Museum. Another famous work is the painting
The Last Supper by Maciej Świeszewski, which has been hanging in the
arrivals hall of the Gdańsk airport since 2016.
Gdańsk is an important transport hub in northern Poland.
By
plane
Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (Port lotniczy Gdańsk im. Lecha
Wałęsy, IATA: GDN; in the western part of the city of Gdańsk, not far
from the S6 motorway). Phone: +48 525 673 531 . A small but very modern
international airport. Low-cost airlines come here.
From the
airport to the city
The airport has its own train station Gdańsk Port
Lotniczy Gdańsk Port Lotniczy, which is connected to Terminal 2 on foot
- most of the regional trains, which run several times an hour, do not
go to the main station, but to "Gdańsk Wrzeszcz", where they go to the
city center and also to Gdynia or Sopot can be changed. In trains that
serve the line of the Pomeranian metropolitan railway (SKM and
PolRegio), the tariff of the Stadtbahn SKM applies. Bus lines 110, 120,
122, 210 and night line N3 also operate from the airport.
A taxi
ride into the city costs €15-20, Bolt is also available.
Minibus
companies offering transfers to more distant cities are listed on the
airport website.
By train
Arriving by train from Germany (via
Berlin) and Austria (via Katowice) is possible without any problems.
From Berlin you can take the EC Berlin - Gdynia, from Austria the night
train Vienna-Warsaw. From Warsaw it is 2 hours and 47 minutes by EIP to
Gdańsk.
The central railway station is Gdańsk Główny (tram 2, 3,
6, 7, 8; bus e.g. 210 (airport), night buses N1, N4, N14) . Rail hub for
northern Poland with direct express trains to all major cities. Regional
trains in the direction of Sopot run on separate terminal platforms on
the Rechstadt side. Here is also the luggage storage. The station has a
post office and a tourist information desk. The paid toilet in the
basement has showers. South of the entrance building is the Central
Hotel (4*) and the PG4 brewery, with in-house serving from 2 p.m.
Feature: Ticket office. Last modified: May 2023 Edit info
Long-distance trains also stop at the Gdańsk Wrzeszcz Langfuhr and
Gdańsk Oliwa stations.
By bus
The long-distance bus station is
on the east side of the main train station.
The Gdańsk ZOB is the
hub of long-distance and regional transport for numerous bus lines.
In the street
The A1 motorway connects Gdańsk with Łódź and
Katowice as well as the Czech Republic. Arrival from Germany is possible
on the S6 expressway via Szczecin.
By boat
From Gdansk
Terminal Promowy Gdańsk Polferries goes to Nynäshamn near Stockholm.
This daily in summer, the rest of the year 4-5 times a week.
There are also ferries from neighboring Gdynia to Karlskrona in southern
Sweden.
Tickets for buses and trams are bought from the driver or at kiosks
and must be validated. One-way tickets cost PLN 4.80, 75-minute transfer
tickets cost PLN 6.00, and one-day tickets (valid for 24 hours) cost PLN
22. Children half, seniors from 70 years travel free. (Prices from Apr.
2023). Night buses cost extra.
Tickets are available from vending
machines. From the driver only on lines 107, 117, 122, 126, 132, 143,
171, 174, 200, 205, 207, 232, 255, 256, 607, N5 (cash only).
Taxis are fairly inexpensive, much safer than many guidebooks state, and
all are metered. However, these are often not used for short trips and
are charged at a flat rate of 10 zł (approx. €2.20). Destinations within
the old town are easily accessible on foot.
Local trains from the
main train station are ideal for excursions. Trains run frequently and
are quite clean, usually overheated in summer. Information desks provide
good information, tickets are easy to get if you use the (of course)
Polish city names (e.g. Malbork instead of Marienburg). In particular,
the 3 cities of the Tri-City (Gdańsk, Zopot and Gdynia) are very well
connected with the fast light rail SKM (Gdańsk-Gdynia). It is also a
good idea to purchase a 72-hour ticket for the metropolitan region
(three cities), which is valid for the SKM as well as for trams and
buses in the three cities.
inland shipping
The Tramwaj wodny
of the ZTM depart from the Zielona Brama ferry terminal, between the
Crane Gate and the Green Gate. Fast ferry catamarans to Hela (nice
fishing village on the Pucky Spit) and to the most important Polish
seaside resort Kołobrzeg also depart from here. It is more about
excursion boats than local traffic, the season is April to November.
The city is located on the Gulf of Gdańsk, at the mouth of the
Motława River to the Vistula River. Gdańsk lies in Żuławy Wiślane, its
coastal part in the Vistula Spit, and its western ends in Pobrzeże
Kaszubskie and Kaszuby Lake District. The location of Gdańsk within four
different physico-geographical units causes a large spatial
differentiation of the natural environment conditions in its area. The
topography, hydrographic system and climatic parameters are also
affected by the location of the city in the coastal zone, characterized
by a specific impact of the sea on the natural environment of the land.
The meridional extent of the city is 19.1 kilometers and the
latitudinal length is 33.9 kilometers.
The climate in the Gdańsk area depends on the sea, which acts as a heat pump - it absorbs heat in the summer and gives it back in the winter. As a result, spring begins relatively late (in May), summer air temperatures are lower than the national average (the perceived temperature is additionally lowered by the sea breeze), although the sun strongly heats the water in the Gulf of Gdańsk (up to 24 ° C). Warm and sunny autumn lasts until October, while winters are rather mild (in some winter months there is not a day of frost and a significant snowfall usually does not stay on the ground for much longer than two weeks a year). The winds blow from different directions depending on the season. In summer, most often from the west and north-west, in winter from the mainland. Storm winds are also characteristic of the coast, which generally blow in winter and reach dizzying speeds.
The city's natural resources include a large area of greenery. Forests and green areas in Gdańsk cover a total of 24% of the total area of the city. Green areas include forest areas (4589 ha), urban greenery (592 ha) and allotment gardens (957 ha). Among the landscaped green areas, large park areas are the most important. There are 21 city parks, open to the public, covering a total area of over 180 hectares in the city. The largest are Park im. Ronald Reagan (62 ha), Park im. John Paul II (25 ha), Oruński Park (19 ha), Steffens Park (13.6 ha), Oliwa Park (11.3 ha), Ferberów Park (11 ha), Motławy Park (11 ha), Park Brzeźniński (approx. 10 ha) and e.g. Jelitkowski Park and park areas along al. Grunwaldzka in Wrzeszcz.
In Gdańsk there are large tracts of forest growing in areas with
varied relief, abounding in numerous hills (moraine heights) and
valleys. Such terrain is conducive to the occurrence of foothill flora
species unique for this region. In the north-western part of the city,
these forests are directly adjacent to residential areas and major urban
centres. Areas of great natural and landscape importance located in
Gdańsk (in 2008 it was a total of 6,005 ha, i.e. 22.9% of the city area)
are under legal protection in four protected landscape areas (of which
the southern part of the Tri-City Park is the most important Landscape
Park and the Oliwskie Forests located within its area), five nature
reserves (located within the above-mentioned protected areas), two
nature and landscape complexes and within thirteen ecological arable
lands.
Within the administrative borders of the city there are
184 natural monuments: 146 individual trees, 27 groups of trees, 1 park
alley, 9 erratic boulders and 1 surface monument - which places Gdańsk
among the top Polish cities in terms of their number. Among the trees
recognized as natural monuments, the most numerous are beeches and oaks.
These monuments are located close to each other, among others in the
area of old Wrzeszcz, in the Steffens Park and in the area of old Oliwa.
The location of the city in close proximity to the sea and large forest areas is conducive to the cleanliness of the environment. In reviews of larger agglomerations, Gdańsk ranks as the cleanest city in Poland, both in terms of air purity and purity of water supplied by the water and sewage system.
The first mention of Gdańsk comes from the Life of Saint Adalbert
written in Latin in 999. It describes Bishop Adalbert's visit to the
area in the spring of 997 and this date is often conventionally accepted
as the beginning of the town's history, although there was a fishing
settlement here as early as the 7th century. In this document, Jan
Kanapariusz recorded the name of Gdańsk in the Latinized form urbe
Gyddanyzc. The town under the Latinized name of Gdanczk is mentioned in
a Latin document issued in Lubiń in 1281, signed by the Pomeranian
prince Mściwoj II.
In historical documents, the name of the city
was mentioned in various languages and forms: Kdansk (1148), Gdansk
(1173-86), Gdanzc (1178), Gdantz (1198), Danzk, Danzc (1209), Gdanizc
(1220), Dancek, Danczk ( 1224), Gdańsk (1235), Gdańsk (1238), in Danzeke
(1248), Gdańsk (1267), Gdańsk (1268), Danczk (1279), de Dancezc (1281),
Gdańsk, Gdańsk (1283), Dantzig (1292) ), Gdantzik (1295), Gedani (1303),
in civitate Gdansco (1310), Danzich (1310), Gdantczk (1325), Danzk
(1342), Danczc, Gdanczk, Gdanczc (1342), Dantzigke, Dantzke (1357),
Gdansk (1434), Gdansk (1435), Gdansko (1457), Dantzigk (1471), Gdansk
(1483), in Gdansk (1510-29), Gdansk, to Gdansk (1565), Gedanum civitas
(1570), to Gdansk, near Gdańsk (1615), in civitate Gedanensi (1624), to
Gdańsk (1664), Danzig (1796-1802), Gdańsk, Danzig (1881).
The
name has several theories about its origin. According to the most widely
accepted (Brückner, Rospond, Rudnicki) it comes from the backwaters at
the mouth of the Vistula and is of Slavic origin. It was created by
adding the suffix -ьsk- to the Proto-Slavic root *-gъd meaning wet,
moist. According to another theory, the name is supposed to derive from
the name of the nearby river (probably the Motława), which today would
be Gdania. (The name Motława comes from the Prussian language,
transferred to the vicinity of Pruszcz Gdański from across the Vistula
River in the second half of the 13th century). The -sk formant in
English Polish (also other Slavic) was productive in topographical and
possessive names and is a characteristic feature of Polish place and
spatial names. The alternations of this formant (-sk[o], -ck[o]) are
characteristic of very old place names given to places in Poland, such
as Bużesk, Łańsk, Płońsk, Płock, Wąchock, Rajsko, Bielsko, Kłodzko,
Radomsko, Sławsko, Słupsk, etc. Gdańsk could also be today's Potok
Siedlce.
This way of creating city names from rivers was common
in Slavic culture (cf. Puck from Putnica, Mieńsk from Mienia, Pińsk from
Pina and many others). As for the name of Gdańsk, the root gъd- meant a
wet, wetland (cf. Gdynia, Gacka ← gъdьska, Gdinj, etc.), and a series of
suffixes -Vnьja is typical for the names of rivers and streams in
Pomerania (cf. Gdynia, Radunia, plowing).
Slavicists Aleksander
Brückner, Friedrich Lorentz, and Witold Taszycki also give a parallel
theory of the origin of the name Gdańsk from the Baltic name *gud
meaning forest and related to the Prussian gudde - forest. Thus, by
adding the suffix -isk to the root *gudan meaning forest people, the
meaning of the name would be a forest settlement, a settlement of forest
people.
For over a thousand years of its history, the city of Gdańsk has been
part of:
997–1227: POL Industry II 1295 COA.svg Duchy/Kingdom of
Poland
1227–1294: POL Pomeranian Voivodeship COA.svg of the Duchy of
Pomerania
1294–1308: POL Industry II 1295 COA.svg Duchy/Kingdom of
Poland
1308–1454: Insignia Germany Order Teutonic.svg of the Teutonic
Order
1454–1466: disputed lands during the Thirteen Years' War
1466–1569: Flag of the Kingdom of Poland.svg Crowns of the Kingdom of
Poland
1569–1793: Royal banner of King Sigismund III Vasa.svg
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
1793–1807: Kingdoms of Prussia
1807–1814: Libre Ville Dantzig.gif of the Free City of Danzig (dependent
on the Flag of France (7x10).svg of the French Empire)
1815–1871:
Kingdoms of Prussia
1871–1918: German Empire of the German Empire
1918–1920: Flag of Germany.svg of the Weimar Republic (in dispute
between Poland and Germany)
1920–1939: Free City of Danzig of the
Free City of Danzig (under the protection of the League of Nations)
1939–1945: Third Reich of Nazi Germany (Gdansk-West Prussia)
1945–1989 People's Poland (1952–1989 Polish People's Republic)
1989–present: Poland of the Republic of Poland.
It is not known where the first fortified settlement built by the
Piast dynasty existed, because the stronghold at the confluence of the
Motława and the Vistula was built only in the 1950s-1960s. 11th century.
It occupied an area of about 2.27 hectares with an estimated number of
about 250 houses with 1,000 inhabitants, estimated by archaeologists. In
997, Saint Adalbert stayed in the city on his way to Prussia. In the
1160s, a fortified town was built at the mouth of the Motława to the
Vistula. After the victorious war with the Pomeranians, Bolesław III
Wrymouth regained all of Western Pomerania for Poland and conquered
Western Pomerania. In the years 1217 and 1227, Leszek the White's
Pomeranian expeditions took place and Polish suzerainty over Gdańsk
Pomerania was established. After Świętopełk II took over the rule in
Gdańsk Pomerania, there was a period of independence of the region. In
1263, the town received city rights modeled on the Lübeck law. In 1271
the Brandenburgers took the city. Mściwoj II, thanks to the help of
Bolesław the Pious, regained the city by storm in 1272. On February 15,
1282, as a result of the agreement in Kępno, the ruler of Greater
Poland, Przemysł II, gained sovereignty over Gdańsk Pomerania.
In
August 1308, the Brandenburgers took over the city without the
stronghold, defended by judge Bogusza. The Teutonic Knights, summoned by
Łokietek to help remove the Brandenburgers, already in October occupied
a part of the stronghold and, after the arrival of reinforcements,
attacked the city. On November 13, 1308, after the withdrawal of the
Brandenburgers, the Teutonic Knights slaughtered the inhabitants. In
1343, as a result of the Peace of Kalisz, Poland loses Pomerania. King
Casimir III the Great renounced Pomerania, although he did not send the
peace documents concluded between him and the Teutonic Order for
approval by the pope. In the same year, the city rights were granted to
the Main Town. On July 31, 1346, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order,
Heinrich IV Dusemer von Arfberg, issued a document that abolished the
remains of the town law according to the Lübeck model and replaced it
with the Chełmno law. In 1361 Gdańsk joined the Union of Hanseatic
Cities. In 1361, 1378, 1411 and 1416, anti-Teutonic uprisings broke out,
which were bloodily suppressed.
In 1410, after the defeat of the
Teutonic Order in the Battle of Grunwald, the urban poor initiated
riots, in which the guests of the Order and mercenaries, whose wounded
were brought after the battle, were murdered. The Gdańsk council decided
to recognize the rule of Władysław Jagiełło, for which the city received
numerous privileges. A year later Jagiełło, as a result of the treaty in
Toruń, freed Gdańsk from the oath taken to him. Gdańsk suffered
repressions from the Teutonic Knights.
On March 14, 1440, Gdańsk
joined the Prussian Union. On February 11, 1454, after 146 years, the
reign of the Teutonic Knights in Gdańsk ended. On March 6 of that year,
King Casimir IV Jagiellon, at the request of the embassy of the Prussian
Confederation, incorporated Gdańsk into Poland, granting it the
privilege of minting its own coin. Gdańsk was exempted from the
waterfront law, and representatives of the Prussian lands were allowed
to participate in the election of the king of Poland. Danzig joined the
Thirteen Years' War in 1455; In 1457, the inhabitants of Gdańsk paid
homage to Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, and on May 25, 1457, the city
received the Great Privilege, ensuring free transport of goods along the
Vistula from Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia without the need for
inspection, and other privileges that were to reward the city's
contribution to the war.
The conclusion of the Peace of Toruń in
1466 guaranteed that Gdańsk Pomerania and Warmia would remain with
Poland. The Pomeranian Voivodeship was created.
During the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521), on November 8–10, 1520,
German landsknechts supporting the Teutonic Knights shelled Gdańsk from
Biskupia Górka. In 1525, the Gdańsk tumult took place - Lutheran
commoners and commoners against the mayor Eberhard Ferber, which
overthrew the old magistrate. On April 17, 1526, King Sigismund and
George I, Duke of Pomerania, entered Gdańsk at the head of an army of
eight thousand. By royal order, the rebels were beheaded and the powers
of the burgrave were extended. On January 5, 1556, Jan Kostka became the
castellan of Gdańsk, and held this position until April 1574. King
Sigismund August, with a special decree of tolerance for Gdańsk from
1557, calmed down the social mood and put an end to religious fighting
in the city. In 1568, Zygmunt August put Jan Kostka at the head of the
newly appointed Maritime Commission. On June 20, 1570, the Sejm approved
the so-called The Constitutions of Gdańsk[44], which specified the
sovereign rights of the Polish king and the Republic of Poland in Gdańsk
and at sea. On December 16, 1577, Stefan Batory, after the end of the
War of the Republic of Poland with Gdańsk, ended with an agreement of
both sides as a result of severe losses of the Gdańsk army and the
inability to capture the city by the royal armies, confirmed the city's
privileges and extended religious tolerance to other denominations.
Gdańsk became a shelter for foreigners persecuted in their countries for
their religious beliefs, among whom were outstanding and talented people
On November 28, 1627, the naval battle of Oliwa took place in the
Gdańsk roadstead. On May 3, 1660, the signing of the Peace of Oliwa
ended the period of the Swedish Deluge.
Gdańsk was the main point
of resistance for Stanisław Leszczyński's supporters during the War of
the Polish Succession. From February to September 1734, it was besieged
by the Russians and partially destroyed by artillery fire. In 1772, the
Kingdom of Prussia seized some estates in Gdańsk and Nowy Port. On
January 23, 1793, Prussia annexed Gdańsk.
On May 26, 1807,
Napoleon's army captured the city. On July 9, 1807, under the provisions
of the Treaty of Tylża, the first Free City of Gdańsk was created. From
February 1814, Gdańsk was again under the rule of Prussia, which was
confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the same year, the city
became part of the province of West Prussia, in the Gdańsk district as a
city district (Stadtkreis). In 1829, the largest flood in the history of
this city took place, which flooded 3/4 of the then area of Gdańsk. By
the middle of the 19th century, there was a general decline of the city.
After 1850, when railway connections were established with Bydgoszcz,
Szczecin and Berlin, and then with Warsaw, the situation of the city
gradually improved.
In 1920, under the Treaty of Versailles, Gdańsk became a free city
again. Poland was responsible for the city's foreign and defense policy,
railways, post office, it also had a military depot at Westerplatte, the
right to freely use the port of Gdansk, and the city itself was in a
customs union with Poland. In 1923, 7,896 Polish-speaking people lived
in Gdańsk, which constituted 2.35% of the total, although according to
later estimates, the Polish population could be as much as 15% of the
city's inhabitants, and in 1939 - about 10%. In 1925, the Archdiocese of
Gdańsk was established in the area of the Free City. In 1933, after the
Nazis came to power and the creation of the Third Reich, anti-Polish
provocations began and local Germans persecuted Polish activists and
organizations.
On September 1, 1939, a salvo from the ship
"Schleswig-Holstein" on Westerplatte was the second attack on Poland,
right after the bombing of Wieluń, which started World War II. At the
beginning of World War II, Gdańsk was a strong center of the Polish
underground, but many of the conspirators died as a result of
denunciations of the Gdańsk Germans.
At the end of March 1945,
the Soviet and Polish troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front stormed the
city. On March 30, 1945, the city was captured and largely destroyed.
Among other things, the destruction 90% of the historic downtown, with
it being estimated that about half of the damage was caused by air raids
during the war or artillery fire during the fighting, and the other half
was caused by the demolition of the city by the Soviet army.
As a
result of the Potsdam Conference, Gdańsk returned to Poland.
A
special government commission was created to create the Polish
administration. There were two positions in it. In the discussion on the
draft decree on the creation of the Gdańsk Voivodeship on March 30,
1945, Władysław Gomułka advocated cautious steps. A firm position was
presented by Jakub Berman stating, among other things, “Until now, the
entire concept of the city of Gdańsk was based on the desire to defend
the interests of the German minority. We want to emphasize that Gdańsk
was and will be a Polish city. It is not accidental that just now, when
we asked for advice on this matter, there were no objections from the
Soviet Government that we should make the ceremonial incorporation of
Gdańsk into Poland as soon as possible.
From March 30, 1945,
Gdańsk was the capital of the Gdańsk Voivodeship, which was created from
the northern part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the former Free City
of Gdańsk. On July 9, 1945, the Municipal National Council met for the
first time.
Among the inhabitants of the Free City remaining in
the city, the German population (approx. 120,000–130,000 people in
mid-1945) was in the vast majority resettled to Germany, while the
Polish population, forced after the occupation of the Free City by the
Third Reich to sign the Volkslist, was obliged to undergo a verification
procedure organized by the new authorities. From mid-1945, Gdańsk was
the destination of numerous forced transports of displaced persons from
the Eastern Borderlands.
In November 1948, the ore coal carrier
"Sołdek", the first seagoing ship built in Poland, was launched. The
ship was named after one of the first labor leaders in the shipbuilding
industry.
In 1962, the State Council awarded the city of Gdańsk
the Order of Polonia Restituta, 1st class.
In 1970, the
University of Gdańsk was established. During the events of December
1970, a strike began in the Gdańsk Shipyard. There were street fights
and clashes with the security authorities, and as a result, the building
of the KW of the Polish United Workers' Party was set on fire during a
protest rally.
On August 31, 1980, the August Agreements were
signed, ending the wave of workers' protests and strikes. The agreement
guaranteed, among other things, the creation of the first independent
trade unions. These events are regarded as the beginning of the process
of overthrowing the communist system in Eastern Europe. In 1987, John
Paul II came to Gdańsk for a visit.
In 1992, the diocese of
Gdańsk was elevated to the rank of an archdiocese. On November 24, 1994,
during a concert in the hall of the Gdańsk Shipyard, a fire broke out,
in which 7 people died and 300 were injured. On April 17, 1995, a gas
explosion occurred in a high-rise apartment building, killing 22 people.
In 1997, the 1000th anniversary of Gdańsk was celebrated. In 2001 there
was a flood in Gdańsk.
On September 2, 2002, the Artus Court held
a ceremonial presentation of the honorary flag of the Council of Europe
to the authorities of Gdańsk. The flag was received from the hands of
Benno Zierer, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe, by the Mayor of Gdańsk, Paweł Adamowicz, and the chairman of the
Gdańsk City Council, Bogdan Oleszek. In the evening, the honorary flag
of the Council of Europe was hoisted on the flagpole at the New Town
Hall. The award was to be an expression of recognition for the city's
activity in developing contacts with foreign partner cities and is a
kind of reward for Gdańsk's achievements in the field of promoting the
idea of European unity.
In 2007, on the basis of an agreement on
establishing and running a joint cultural institution concluded between
the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Pomeranian
Voivodeship, the City of Gdańsk, the Independent Self-Governing Trade
Union "Solidarity" and the Solidarity Center Foundation, the European
Solidarity Center was established. In 2014, the newly built seat of the
museum was opened, located at Plac Solidarności and Gate No. 2 and right
next to the BHP Hall.
In 2008, the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theater was
founded, the construction of the theater building was completed in 2014.
In the same year, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk was
established, the construction of the museum building was completed in
2017.
In 2009, the construction of the Museum - Maritime Culture
Center began, which ended in 2012.
On January 13, 2019, at Targ
Węglowy, during the celebration of the city final of the 27th edition of
the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, an attack on the mayor of the
city, Paweł Adamowicz, took place. The next day, the president died from
his injuries.
Well-known inhabitants of Gdańsk include, among others:
Paweł
Adamowicz – lawyer, legal adviser, local government official and
politician, in the years 1998–2019 mayor of Gdańsk,
Lech Bądkowski –
writer, journalist, translator, political, cultural and social activist,
Abraham van den Blocke – architect and sculptor,
Isaac van den Blocke
- painter,
Jan Bernard Bonifacio – humanist, bibliophile, traveler,
founder of the Library of the City Council in Gdańsk,
Daniel
Chodowiecki – Polish-German painter and draftsman,
Jan Dantyszek -
traveler, diplomat, Bishop of Chełmno residing in Lubawa, Warmia,
Polish-Latin poet of the Renaissance period, royal secretary,
Gabriel
Fahrenheit - physicist and engineer of German origin,
Daniel Gralath
- mayor, burgrave, scholar,
Günter Grass - German writer, winner of
the Nobel Prize in Literature,
Jan Heweliusz – astronomer,
mathematician and constructor of scientific instruments,
Jakob Kabrun
– merchant, diplomat of Saxony and the Duchy of Warsaw,
Bronisław
Komorowski - blessed of the Catholic Church, Polish Catholic priest,
activist and politician,
Franciszek Kubacz – activist of the Polish
community in Gdańsk, chairman of the local Educational Society, member
of the Volkstag,
Gotfryd Lengnich – historian, lawyer and city
receiver,
Anton Möller – painter, author of allegorical paintings,
biblical compositions and portraits,
Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongovius –
Evangelical priest, preacher, philosopher, linguist,
Jerzy Owsiak -
Polish journalist, philanthropist, charity and social activist,
Arthur Schopenhauer - German philosopher, representative of pessimism in
philosophy,
Johanna Schopenhauer - German writer, mother of Arthur
Schopenhauer,
Johann Speymann – merchant, councilor and mayor of
Gdańsk,
Jan Strakowski – architect, bricklayer and stonemason,
Jerzy Strakowski – architect, son of Jan Strakowski,
Johann Uphagen –
bibliophile, historian, lover of science, juror and councilor of Gdańsk,
Lech Wałęsa - politician and trade union activist, leader and hero of
the democratic opposition in the People's Republic of Poland, co-founder
and first chairman of NSZZ "Solidarity", winner of the Nobel Peace
Prize, in the years 1990-1995 the president of the Republic of Poland,
an electrician by profession,
Brunon Zwarra – publicist, author of
books about the history of Gdańsk, a prisoner of German concentration
camps
Gdańsk is a large economic center on the Baltic Sea. Already the
first records proving the existence of the city, such as "Żywot św.
Adalbert" from 997, speak of a stronghold, a city; Gdańsk of that time
must have been a populous settlement. The stronghold conducted trade and
market activities, with fishing, amber collecting and a sea port. In
1263, Gdańsk received city rights as a result of strong development
during the times of Świętopełk. Gdańsk maintained the greatest trade
relations with Lübeck, from where salt and cloth were imported, and
grain and wood were exported.
Gdańsk also developed under the
rule of the Teutonic Knights. The city became a member of the Hanseatic
League, acted as an intermediary in Poland's foreign trade by collecting
the so-called pound. More and more ships arrived at the port of Gdańsk,
large granaries and a large crane built in 1367 were built. Gdańsk
surpassed other cities of the lower Vistula, such as Elbląg, Toruń and
Chełmno. It also became an important city in the Hanseatic League.
After the end of the war and the signing of the Peace of Toruń,
there was a period of union with Poland. Gdańsk gained numerous
privileges: extensive autonomy in the financial, administrative and
judiciary fields. The right to issue statutes of the so-called Wilkies -
regulations regulating urban life, primarily commercial. In addition,
Gdańsk received the right to mint its own coins in gold and silver. At
that time, Gdańsk introduced a new duty, the pile duty, in order to
increase its revenues. The golden period of economic development of the
city followed. Gdańsk became a monopolist in Poland's foreign trade,
acting as an intermediary in export-import transactions. At that time,
he traded on a large scale, traded with German Hanseatic cities:
Hamburg, Lüneburg, Wismar, Rostock, Danish and Swedish, from where he
imported: herring, furs, iron and exported: salt, beer (mainly Jope
beer), wine, southern fruits and industrial goods. Similar transactions
were concluded by Gdańsk on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea with
Rewel, Pärnu, Dorpat, Riga and Novgorod. Merchants' contacts with Bruges
were of great importance, where they exported: grain, wood, furs, lead,
Hungarian copper, Swedish iron and brought: Flanders cloth, wine, olive
oil, southern fruits. Then they moved their commercial contacts to
Antwerp and Amsterdam. They also traded with England, France, Spain and
Portugal. The share of Gdańsk in the total trade in the Baltic region
reached 30%.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Gdańsk equaled
Lübeck in terms of size. Shortly before the Swedish Deluge, Gdańsk, with
77,000 inhabitants, was at the peak of its prosperity. The following
years reduced the value of trade, Western Europe reduced the demand for
grain from Gdańsk, numerous wars destroyed the city, partitions took
place and independence was lost. In order to change the economic
situation, Gdańsk created the Chamber of Commerce, the Artus Court was
commissioned for the purposes of the commodity exchange, the city
maintained commercial agents in the capitals of larger countries and
foreign agents and consuls from other countries were received.
In
the 19th century, the city's economy was in recession. After the railway
connection with Bydgoszcz was established in 1852, the economic
situation gradually improved. In 1870, new railway connections were
additionally established with Szczecin and Berlin, and in 1877 with
Warsaw. In 1873, the first horse-drawn tram line to Oliwa was built.
After subsequent decisions from the end of the 19th century, which
abolished transit duties, there was a gradual development of exports
(mainly grain and wood).
In the years 1871–1897, the first sewage
system was established, then the construction of the water supply system
began, and since 1903, the city has had a separate sewage system -
rainwater discharged into open waters, and sanitary discharged to the
sewage treatment plant. A gasworks was built in 1853, a power plant in
1897, and the first electric tram lines in 1895–1896. In the
mid-nineteenth century science also developed, in 1849 there were 46
elementary schools and 8 secondary schools in Gdańsk. In 1904, a
polytechnic was opened.
Only the end of World War I and the
creation of the Free City of Gdańsk with free Poland made it possible to
enter the next phase of the city's development.
During the period
of the Free City of Danzig, the significant influence of the Weimar
Republic on the Free City of Danzig made Poland decide to build a port
in Gdynia. Until World War II, this port overtook the port of Gdańsk in
terms of the amount of transshipped goods.
After the war, the
city was rebuilt. The port was rebuilt and an external new part of the
port called the Northern Port was created. The shipyards were rebuilt.
After the war, the following shipyards were located in Gdańsk:
Gdańska Stocznia "Remontowa" S.A., Stocznia Gdańsk S.A., Northern
Shipyard, Wisła Shipyard.
About 52,000 people conduct business activity in Gdańsk. entities.
From the list of the 500 largest Polish companies (according to sales
revenue) published by Polityka, ten companies had their headquarters in
Gdańsk in 2012. These are companies from the shipbuilding industry
(Gdańska Stocznia "Remontowa", Crist - the largest private shipyard in
Poland), petrochemical (Grupa Lotos, including Petrobaltic), energy
(Elektrociepłownie Wybrzeże, Energa, Gdańskie Przedsiębiorstwo
Energetyki Cieplnej), clothing (LPP), metal (Glencore), building
materials (Mercor) and retail (Jysk).
Every year, dozens of
industry fair events are held in Gdańsk. Many of them are organized by
the Gdańsk International Fair. The Baltexpo maritime trade fair in
Gdańsk has a long tradition. Previously, the fairs were usually held in
the exhibition halls at Beniowskiego Street in Oliwa, now in a new
location at the AmberExpo Exhibition and Congress Center in Gdańsk
Letnica, in the vicinity of the stadium.
At the end of July 2021,
the number of registered unemployed in Gdańsk was approx. 9.1 thousand.
inhabitants, which is an unemployment rate of 3.6%.
located near the Old Town:
Forum Gdańsk - opened on May 26, 2018
at ul. Targ Sienny 7, located between the main streets of Gdańsk's
Śródmieście - Wały Jagiellońskie, al. Armii Krajowej and ul. 3 Maja,
opposite Brama Wyżynna, near the intersection of Hucisko. Directly under
the building of the forum there is a tunnel (ul. Nowe Podwale Grodzkie)
that allows you to pass bypassing Hucisko and Błędnik. A part of the
building is also an adapted fragment of the Radunia Canal. The Forum
occupies a total of 6 hectares, of which 40% is public space available
24 hours a day, and 2 hectares are green areas in the form of gardens.
The Forum has about 220 commercial and service premises (including,
among others, about 140 shops, about 30 dining establishments, a
9-screen Helios cinema and a fitness club) and a multi-storey car park
for about 1,000 spaces.
Galeria Handlowa Madison - a shopping mall
located at ul. Rajska 10 in the very center of Gdańsk, near the Organika
Trade office building and in the vicinity of the Mercure-Hevelius hotel,
approx. 300 m from the PKP / SKM Gdańsk Główny Railway Station. It was
opened on November 28, 2003. Its area is 33 thousand square meters. m².
It has 100 shops and service outlets.
located within Wrzeszcz:
Galeria Bałtycka – opened on October 4, 2007 at al. Grunwaldzka 141,
currently the most popular shopping center in Gdańsk. It has 200 shops
and service outlets and 15 gastronomic outlets.
CH Manhattan - opened
on March 5, 2004 with an area of 53 thousand. m² at al. Grunwaldzka 82.
It has 120 shops and service outlets.
Galeria Metropolia - Opened on
October 22, 2016. Located opposite Galeria Bałtycka and in the immediate
vicinity of the former brewery and the Gdańsk Wrzeszcz railway / SKM
station. In addition to about 100 shops, there is also a hotel (116
rooms), a cinema, a playground for children, a wellness center and a
fitness club.
located within Przymorze and Zaspa:
Alfa Centrum
Gdansk
Galeria Przymorze - located at ul. Obrońców Wybrzeża 1
two-story shopping mall, adjacent to the longest residential building in
Central Europe - falowiec; opened its doors to customers for the first
time in spring 2009.
Galeria Zaspa (formerly ETC Shopping Centre)
located at the Tri-City ring road:
CH Osowa (formerly King Cross)
- the facility opened on November 18, 1998 at ul. Spacerowa 48; adjacent
to the Tri-City ring road. It has an area of 45 thousand. m²; offers its
customers about 70 boutiques and service outlets.
Matarnia Retail
Park - opened on November 23, 2005, the retail park has a total of over
50 stores, both with fashion and furniture, as well as cafes. Its
commercial and service area is 69 thousand square meters. m². Just like
CH Osowa, this park is adjacent to the Tri-City ring road, and the
airport is located a few kilometers away.
CH Auchan - with an area of
13 thousand. m², opened on March 25, 1998, located at ul. Szczęśliwa 3,
the center consists of three larger stores: Auchan Hypermarket, Leroy
Merlin and Norauto. It has about 50 smaller shops and restaurants.
other districts:
CH Morena - located at ul. Schuberta 102 A is
one of the oldest shopping centers in Gdańsk.
Galeria Chełm – opened
in September 2008 at ul. Cienista 30 has a lot of empty service
premises; there, among others, a gym and a Kaufland sales hall -
formerly Tesco was located there.
Gdańsk is located at the crossroads of road transport routes. The
European routes E28, E75 and E77 meet in the city. National road no. 91
begins at the Port of Gdansk, and national road no. 7 and the S6 and S7
expressways intersect. The national road No. 89 also runs through the
city. The road network is supplemented by 6 provincial roads (218, 221,
222, 468, 472 and 501).
Gdańsk has two transit bypasses:
The
Tri-City ring road (north-south), which is an "extension" of the A1
motorway to Gdynia.
The southern bypass of Gdańsk (east-west), which
allows you to bypass the city center by taking the S7 expressway from
Elbląg towards Gdynia, Kartuzy and Szczecin.
In the years
2010–2012, the city built routes connecting Gdańsk ports with ring
roads, these are the Sucharskiego Route (DK89) and part of the
Słowackiego Route. In April 2016, the last section of the Słowackiego
Route was put into service, i.e. the Tunnel under the Martwa Wisła
connecting Nowy Port (ferry terminal) with Wyspa Portowa (Northern Port,
DCT Gdańsk container terminal).
The railway reached Gdańsk on August 6, 1852, when the 1-track
section Tczew-Gdańsk was launched, constituting a part of the Prussian
Eastern Railway (Preußische Ostbahn) from Berlin via
Kostrzyn-Krzyż-Piłę-Bydgoszcz-Tczew to Gdańsk and Królewiec. In October
1857, Gdańsk was connected to Malbork. In 1870, the Słupsk-Gdańsk
connection was put into operation, built by the Berlin-Szczecin Railway
Society (Berlin-Stettiner Eisenbahn Gesellschaft). In the years
1876–1877, thanks to the opening of the Malbork-Iława-Działdowo-Mława
line, on September 1, 1877, Gdańsk gained a railway connection with
Warsaw. Until the end of World War II, the railway line Gdańsk Wrzeszcz
- Stara Piła, built in 1914, operated. In 2015, it was rebuilt as line
No. 248 in the variants Wrzeszcz-Kiełpinek (reconstruction),
Kiełpinek-Rębiechowo (construction). In the years 2022–2023, the section
Kiełpinek–Leźno–Stara Piła–Glincz, which connects to the lines to
Kościerzyna and Kartuzy, was rebuilt by the Pomeranian Metropolitan
Railway and PKP PLK. This project is called the Kartuzy bypass and is to
act as a detour during the modernization of the coal main line to
Gdynia.
In the years 2021-2023, the electrification of line 248
continued. In 2022, the construction of the new Gdańsk Firoga stop in
the Matarnia district of Gdańsk was completed, the work was carried out
by the Poznań company Torpol S.A..
The post-war years brought the
construction of a separate, electrified SKM line - in 1951 Gdańsk
Główny-Gdańsk Nowy Port, in 1952 on the section Gdańsk Wrzeszcz-Sopot
and in 1953 Sopot-Gdynia. The line to Nowy Port is currently used only
for freight traffic. Occasionally, SKM trains take it to and from the
participants of mass events at the Gdańsk Stadium.
An important role in public transport in the Tri-City agglomeration
is played by the Fast Urban Railway, whose trains run through Gdańsk,
Sopot, Gdynia, to Rumia, Reda, Wejherowo and Lębork, on the
Gdańsk-Gdynia section with a frequency of up to 7-8 minutes at peak
times, on its own track separated from the network of PKP Polskie Linie
Kolejowe.
Urban transport in Gdańsk is managed by the Public
Transport Authority (ZTM Gdańsk), and transport is carried out by
Gdańskie Buses and Trams (formerly Zakład Komunikacji Miejskiej in
Gdańsk) and PW BP Tour Piotr Brewczak. Commissioned by ZTM, there are 73
regular daily bus lines, 11 night lines and 2 seasonal lines (total
length 767.7 km) and 11 tram lines, 1 occasional night line and 2
seasonal lines (total length 116.7 km).
In Gdańsk, there are also
carriers not associated with ZTM Gdańsk, which ensure communication with
the surrounding towns, including Veolia Transportation, P.A. Gryf,
Roki-Trans, Angelus, Jurexbus and others.
As part of the holiday
tourist transport, the cities of Gdańsk, Sopot and Hel decided to launch
(since 2006) water trams. The ferries run on three lines operated by the
units of Żegluga Gdańska.
Since 2004, as part of the "Gdańsk City
Transport Project" project, the Gdańsk City Hall has been modernizing
the existing tram tracks, replacing the bus and tram fleet with newer,
ecological, more comfortable and disabled-friendly ones.
In addition,
under this project, it was possible to build tracks on Chełm ("Chełm
Witosa loop", 2007) and Orunia Górna ("Lostowice-Świętokrzyska loop",
2012).
In 2007, the city of Gdańsk, together with thirteen
neighboring communes, established the Metropolitan Transport Association
of the Gdańsk Bay. One of the first decisions of MZKZG was the decision
to implement the metropolitan ticket. Currently, as part of MZKZG, you
can buy common 1-, 24-, 72-hour and monthly tickets.
In 2015, the
track from the Siedlce terminus to the Gdańsk Brętowo stop via
Piecki-Migowo was built. The track on Przeróbka was also modernized
along with the Siennicki Bridge.
In Gdańsk, from July 1, 2018,
free travel for children and youth living in Gdańsk and attending
schools has been in force. Free rides are valid only for holders of the
Gdańsk Resident Card. with an activated package of free rides (after
verification of the ID).
From 2019, people with a loaded ticket
for public transport on a Gdańsk resident card can use free travel from
SKM and Polregio within the administrative borders of the city of
Gdańsk.
In 2020, the construction of Aleja Paweł Adamowicza was
completed, which connected Jasień and Ujeścisko with tram lines. The
route has been designed to facilitate the future development of
Jabłoniowa Street connecting Ujeścisko with Szadółki and Warszawska
Street connecting Ujeścisko with Chełm.
In 2020, a comprehensive
renovation of the track in Stogi was completed on the section from Trasa
Sucharskiego to the beach.
On February 3, 2021, a contract was
signed for the implementation of a new tram route with the working name
Nowa Warszawska, with 4 stops and a new running gear. The planned date
of completion of the investment is November 2022, and the launch of the
trams is planned for the first quarter of 2023.
Gdańsk has a large seaport, which is also the largest Polish port. In
2008, goods with a total weight of 17.07 million tons were handled
there. The vast majority of transshipments were liquid and dry bulk
(10.61 and 4.04 million tons, respectively).
From Targ Rybny
there are regular cruises of the white fleet, operated by the Żegluga
Gdańska company, mainly on the cruise routes around the port, to
Westerplatte and to Hel. There is also a passenger terminal in Gdańsk
Nowy Port, from which ferries depart to Nynäshamn (Sweden) of the
Polferries line.
Located within the city limits, in the Matarnia district, Gdańsk
Airport. Lech Wałęsa Airport is the third (after Warsaw and Krakow)
airport in Poland in terms of the volume of passenger traffic. In 2019,
it served 5,376,120 passengers.
In 2011 at al. Jana Pawła II, the
Gdańsk-Zaspa sanitary airstrip was opened, and a year later, on the roof
of the Invasive Medicine Center building at ul. In Dębinki, the
Gdańsk-Hospital UCK airstrip was opened.
On October 1, 2018, selected routes of the trolleybus line No. 31 organized by ZKM in Gdynia, operated by battery-powered trolleybuses, were directed to the Sopot Ergo Arena stop. On a small part, this line runs through the territory of Gdańsk.
There is an emergency notification center in Gdańsk that handles emergency calls to emergency numbers 112, 997, 998 and 999.
University Clinical Center with a sanitary airstrip in Gdańsk -
Aniołki, ul. Dębinki 7
COPERNICUS Medical Entity Sp. z o. o. (the
company manages: the former Mikołaj Kopernik Provincial Specialist
Hospital in Gdańsk, and later the Pomeranian Traumatology Center -
Śródmieście, Nowe Ogrody 1-6, the Provincial Oncology Center in Gdańsk -
Aniołki, Skłodowska-Curie St. Adalberta in Gdańsk with the airstrip -
Zaspa, Jana Pawła II Avenue, Provincial Dental Clinic - Aniołki,
Zwycięstwa Avenue)
Polanka Children's Hospital Maciej Płażyński in
Gdańsk sp. z o.o. (former Specialist Children's Hospital) - Oliwa, ul.
Polanka 119
7. Naval Hospital with a ZOZ Clinic in Gdańsk (district
VII Dwór), ul. Polanka 117
Academic Hospital in Gdańsk – Wrzeszcz,
al. Wins
Pomeranian Center for Infectious Diseases and Tuberculosis
in Gdańsk - Aniołki, ul. Smoluchowskiego 18
Department of Gynecology
UCK - Wrzeszcz, ul. Clinical
Wojewódzki Szpital Psychiatry im. prof.
Tadeusza Bilikiewicza in Gdańsk - Brętowo/Srebrzysko, ul. Silversmiths
17
Hospital of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration in
Gdańsk - Śródmieście, ul. Kartuska 4/6
Invasive Medicine Center in
Gdańsk – Aniołki, ul. Smoluchowskiego 17
SWISSMED Szpital Wileńska – private hospital in Gdańsk –
Piecki-Migowo, ul. Wilenska 44
LUX Med – Medical Center in Gdańsk –
Aniołki, al. Zwycięstwa 44 (entrance from ul. E. Orzeszkowa); Zaspa, al.
John Paul II 7
Seaside Medical Center sp. z o.o. "Świętokrzyska
Clinic in Gdańsk" - Orunia Górna, ul. Świętokrzyska 4
There are 14 higher education institutions in Gdańsk, including 6 state and several non-public higher education institutions established after 1989. In 2008, they had a total of 78,626 students, which makes Gdańsk one of the largest academic centers in Poland.
University of Gdańsk (UG) - established on March 20, 1970, from the
merger of the Higher School of Economics in Sopot and the Higher
Pedagogical School in Gdańsk (28,584 students).
Gdańsk University of
Technology (PG) - one of the oldest technical universities in Poland.
Founded on October 6, 1904. It has been operating as a Polish university
since May 24, 1945 (21,638 students).
Medical University of Gdańsk
(MUG) - the oldest independent medical university in Poland, founded in
1945, its history dates back to 1454 (4,936 students).
Academy of
Physical Education and Sport (AWFiS) - a two-faculty university with its
seat in Gdańsk-Oliwa (3784 students).
Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) -
started its activity just after the war in 1945.
Academy of Music
(AMuz) – founded in 1947. 2007–2008 celebrated its 60th anniversary (655
students).
University of Tourism and Hotel Management in Gdańsk (3878 students)
WSB Merito University (formerly WSB University, 3799 students)
Gdańsk
University of Humanities (3737 students)
University of Security in
Poznań (2,600 students)
Ateneum - University (2600 students).
University of Management (2405 students)
Gdańsk University of Applied
Sciences (1041 students)
University of Social and Economics (556
students)
Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology - PJAIT
Teaching Center in Gdańsk
Higher denominational schools:
Gdańsk Theological Seminary
Scientific institutions
In
addition to universities, scientific research is carried out by several
scientific institutes, including:
humanities, social and economic
sciences: Baltic Institute, Kashubian Institute, Gdańsk Institute for
Market Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences - branch of the library in
Gdańsk
natural, technical and exact sciences: Life Sciences Society
in Gdańsk, Maritime Institute in Gdańsk, Institute of Hydroengineering
of the Polish Academy of Sciences, branch of the Institute of Energy,
Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery named after Robert Szewalski PAN,
branch of the Industrial Telecommunications Institute.
Commercialization of scientific research
Gdańsk Science and
Technology Park
TV stations
TVP3 Gdańsk
EIA TV
TVO Gdańsk (TV Rozdaje –
activity suspended in 2013)
PTV television
In the years 1990–1996,
the first private, independent TV station in Poland, Sky Orunia,
operated in the Gdańsk district of Orunia.
Roman Catholic Church (Gdańsk is the seat of the curia of the
Archdiocese of Gdańsk):
Parish of St. Anna and Joachim
Parish of
St. Antoni Padewski
Parish of St. Barbara
Corpus Christi Parish
Parish of St. Brother Albert (Kokoszki)
Parish of St. Brother Albert
(Przymorze)
Parish of St. Bridget (Basilica of St. Bridget)
Christ
the King Parish
Christ the Redeemer Parish
Christ the Savior
Parish
Parish of Bl. Dorothy from Mątew
Parish of St. Francis of
Assisi
Parish of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Parish of St. Queen
Jadwiga
Parish of St. Hedwig of Silesia
Parish of St. John Bosco
Parish of St. John the Baptist
Parish of St. John Paul II
Parish
of St. Joseph
Parish of St. Judy Tadeusz
Parish of St. Casimir
Parish of St. Christopher
Parish of St. cross
Parish of St.
Maximilian Kolbe
Our Lady of Sorrows Parish
Our Lady of
Czestochowa Parish
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish
Parish of Our
Lady of Saletyn
Our Lady of Pregnancy Parish
Parish of Our Lady of
Fatima
Parish of Our Lady Queen of the Polish Crown
Mother of the
Redeemer Parish
Parish of St. Nicholas (Basilica of St. Nicholas)
Divine Mercy Parish
Holy Name of Mary Parish
Parish of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus
Parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church
and St. Catherine of Sweden
Parish of the Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin Mary
Parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of
the Holy Rosary
Parish of St. Padre Pio[
Parish of Divine
Providence
Parish of St. Apostles Peter and Paul (Jelitkowo)
Parish of St. Peter and Paul the Apostles (Stare Przedmieście)
Parish
of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Parish of St. Polycarp
Parish
of St. Rafał Kalinowski
Holy Family Parish
Parish of St.
Stanislaus Bishop
Parish of St. Stanisław Kostka
Parish of St.
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
Parish of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus
Holy Trinity Parish
Parish of St. Urszula Ledóchowska
Parish of
St. Valentine
Parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(St. Mary's Basilica)
Parish of St. Wojciech (Świbno)
Parish of
St. Adalbert (Saint Adalbert)
Parish of the Resurrection of the Lord
Greek Catholic Church:
Parish of St. Bartholomew and the Protection
of the Blessed Virgin Mary (co-cathedral of St. Bartholomew and the
Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Armenian Catholic Church:
Northern Armenian Catholic parish with its seat in Gdańsk
Mariavite Catholic Church in Poland:
diaspora, without a temple
(the faithful perform adoration of supplication on the 25th day of each
month)
Polish Catholic Church in Poland:
Corpus Christi Parish
Catholic National Church in Poland:
Parish of Our Lady Queen of
Poland
Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (both parishes use the church of
St. Nicholas):
Parish of St. Santa
Parish of St. George the Victor
(military)
Pentecostal Christian Community:
church in Gdańsk
Confederation
of Evangelical Reformed Churches in Poland:
Evangelical Reformed
Church in Gdańsk
Gospel Church Gdansk
Seventh-day Adventist Church
in Poland:
church in Gdańsk
Church of God in Christ
Church "Way
of the Lord"
Community City
Community of Redeemed Christians
Church of God in Poland
Church of God's Power in Gdańsk
Christian
Church "Kingdom of God" in Gdańsk
Baptist Church in Poland:
and
the church
2nd Congregation (Strzyża)
"EXE" Church (Strzyża)
Full Gospel Christian Church God's Camp:
Power of Heaven Full Gospel
Christian Church
Evangelical Faith Christian Church:
David's Army
Congregation
Bethesda Congregation
Evangelical-Augsburg Church in
Poland:
Parish in Gdańsk with its seat in Sopot
Evangelical-Methodist Church in Poland:
Evangelical-Methodist parish
Evangelical Reformed Church in Poland:
diasporic group in Bytów,
Gdańsk and Sopot
Evangelical Church "Mission of Grace":
Evangelical Church "Misja Łaski" in Gdańsk
Free Christian Church:
church in Gdańsk
Pentecostal Church in Poland:
Christian Center
"New Life"
Joy of Life Church
church "Echo Church"
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Commune of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gdańsk
Jehovah's
Witnesses: 21 congregations (Gdańsk-English, Gdańsk-Centrum,
Gdańsk-Migowy, Gdańsk-Morena, Gdańsk-Oliwa, Gdańsk-Orunia-East,
Gdańsk-Orunia-West, Gdańsk-Osowa, Gdańsk-Przymorze, Gdańsk-Russian,
Gdańsk-Siedlce, Gdańsk-Stadium, Gdańsk-Ujeścisko,
Gdańsk-Ukrainian-South, Gdańsk-Ukrainian-North, Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz-Brętowo,
Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz-Dolny, Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz-North, Gdańsk-East, Gdańsk-Zaspa,
Gdańsk–Żabianka), Kingdom Halls: ul. Barniewicka 54, ul. T.
Bora-Komorowskiego 1a, ul. Kepna 9, ul. Nad Jarem 31D, ul. Schubert 83
Secular Missionary Movement "Epiphany":
church in Gdańsk
Muslim Religious Association:
Muslim Religious Community in Gdańsk
Beit Tricity
A branch of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities
in Gdańsk
Independent Commune of the Mosaic Faith
Karaite Religious Union in Poland:
jam in Gdansk
Karma Kagyu Lineage Diamond Way Buddhist Association:
Buddhist
Meditation Center in Gdańsk
Sangha "Dogen Zenji":
Tricity resort
Zen Kwan Um School in Poland
Gdańsk Zen Centre
International Society for Krishna Consciousness:
local center in
Gdańsk
Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University:
Brahma Kumaris
Center in Gdańsk
Other
Natural Church
Gdańsk hosted the 2009 European Men's Basketball Championship, the
2012 European Football Championship, the 2013 Men's European Volleyball
Championship, and the 2014 Men's Volleyball World Championship, and the
2016 European Men's Handball Championship.
The sports clubs in
Gdańsk include:
Lechia Gdańsk
Lechia Gdańsk Sports Club
(Ekstraklasa from the 2008/2009 season)
Rugby Club Lechia Gdansk
Gedania Gdańsk - founded in 1922 as a Polish multi-section sports club
in the Free City of Gdańsk. Currently, there are volleyball, football
and rowing sections.
women's volleyball section of Gedania Gdańsk
(Women's Volleyball League in the 2006/07 season) and Energa Gedania II
Gdańsk
football section (3rd league in the 2022/23 season)
Gdańsk
Rowing Society Gedania
Polonia Gdańsk was established on September
27, 1945 - initially it was called "NIT". The first matches were played
on the island of Ostrów, and the "access" to the speedway pitch was by
boat.
men's football section (A class gr Gdańsk II in the 2019/20
season)
The Gdańsk Speedway Club "Wybrzeże" was founded in 2006. It
continues the tradition of the Gdańsk Sports Club "Wybrzeże" operating
in the years 1945-2005.
speedway section (1st league from the 2016
season)
Gdański Auto Moto Klub – a motocross club existing since
1946; organizer of competitions of the rank of Polish, European and
world championships.
GKS Stoczniowiec Gdańsk – a multi-section sports
club
Stoczniowiec Gdańsk - boxing section
Stoczniowiec Gdańsk -
ice hockey section, plays its matches in Hala Olivia
figure
skating
Gdański Klub Wioślarski DRAKKAR - a club established as a
result of the transformation of the rowing section of Stoczniowiec
Gdańsk
Trefl Gdańsk - men's volleyball team from Gdańsk was founded
in 2005 on the initiative of the owner of Trefl S.A. – Kazimierz
Wierzbicki.
men's volleyball section (Plusliga in the 2019/20 season)
GTS Gdańsk – a volleyball club founded in 2005.
men's volleyball
section (II league in the 2006/07 season)
Seahawks Gdynia – American
football club (Polish runner-up in 2006 and 2008)
TKKF Stoczniowiec
Gdańsk – boxing, kickboxing, Thai boxing, table tennis, tennis
TKKF
Rozdaje Gdańsk - LA jogging section, football, sports and 3rd age
classes, instructor courses, etc.
UKS Jasieniak – a student sports
club with a volleyball profile
Frog Crow
tourist canoe club
SMS
Gdańsk – men's handball team (1st league in the 2006/07 season)
Spojnia Gdańsk
AZS-AWFiS Gdańsk
women's handball section of
AZS-AWFiS Gdańsk (Ekstraklasa in the 2006/07 season)
men's handball
section of AZS-AWFiS Gdańsk (1st league in the 2006/07 season)
fencing section SIETOM AZS-AWFiS Gdańsk
also sections: gymnastics,
judo, athletics, swimming, rugby, table tennis, rowing, sailing
Champion Gdansk
kickboxing section
muay thai section
GKS Morena
- football sports club playing in the B-class
UKS Suchanik – a
student sports club with a volleyball profile
Gdansk Sailing Club
Gdańskie Boule - pétanque club, one of the three boulder clubs from the
Pomeranian Voivodeship associated in the Polish Pétanque Federation
Pomeranian Hockey Club 2014 - a hockey club playing in the top class of
the competition
Cyclical sports events of high rank
Regular
international sports events of high rank (at least the World Cup or
equivalent) include:
Dwór Artusa – fencing competition in women's
foil, depending on the year World Cup or Grand Prix (held annually in
the first quarter of the year);
Junior Grand Prix Baltic Cup – figure
skating competition, Junior World Cup – see Junior Grand Prix in figure
skating (held every two years, in the third quarter of the year).
6 summer sea bathing sites were organized in Gdańsk:
Gdańsk Orle -
covering 100 m of coastline,
Gdańsk Sobieszewo - covering 200 m of
coastline,
Gdańsk Stogi - covering 400 m of coastline,
Dom
Zdrojowy Gdańsk Brzeźno - covering 100 m of the coastline,
Pier
Gdańsk Brzeźno - covering 500 m of the coastline,
Gdańsk Jelitkowo -
covering 200 m of coastline.
Gdańsk also offers countless
attractions and recreation offers for children. Among them it is worth
mentioning:
Maritime Culture Centre
Hevelianum
European
Solidarity Center with the Play Department
Fun Arena at the Gdańsk
Stadium
Zoo
Blue Lamb Granary
Land of Fun and Skate Plaza
Loopy's World
Skimondo ski slope all year round
Seasonal ice rinks
Olivia and the ice rink at Plac Zebrań Ludowych
Gdańsk is a city with poviat rights. The legislative body of the
local government is the Gdańsk City Council, consisting of 34
councillors.
The executive body of the self-government is the
Mayor of the City of Gdańsk.
City Hall
Mayor of the city - Aleksandra Dulkiewicz from March 11,
2019
1st deputy mayor of the city for sustainable development and
investments - Piotr Grzelak from May 31, 2022 (deputy mayor of the city
for sustainable development from December 12, 2014 to May 31, 2022)
Deputy Mayor for Social Development and Equal Treatment - Monika Chabior
from March 8, 2021 (Deputy Mayor for Education and Social Services from
December 1, 2020 to March 8, 2021)
Deputy mayor of the city for
entrepreneurship and climate protection - Piotr Borawski from January 7,
2019
Deputy mayor of the city for municipal services - Piotr
Kryszewski from May 31, 2022
Secretary of the City - Danuta Janczarek
from 1991 to 1994 and from 1998
City treasurer - Izabela Kuś from
February 1, 2020
Chairperson of the city council - Agnieszka Owczarczak
Vice-president of the city council - Teresa Wasilewska
Deputy
chairman of the city council - Piotr Gierszewski
Deputy chairman of
the city council - Mateusz Skarbek
Composition of the City
Council in 2002–2006
Civic Platform – 15 seats
Democratic Left
Alliance-Labor Union – 6 seats
Voters and Sympathizers of Lech
Kaczyński Law and Self-Governance - 6 seats
League of Polish Families
– 5 seats
Self-defense - 1 ticket
Civic Committee of Bogdan
Borusewicz - 1 mandate
Composition of the City Council in
2006–2010
Civic Platform – 21 seats
Law and Justice – 13 seats
Composition of the City Council in 2010–2014
Civic Platform – 26
seats
Law and Justice – 7 seats
Democratic Left Alliance – 1 seat
Composition of the City Council in 2014–2018
Civic Platform – 22
seats
Law and Justice – 12 seats
Composition of the City
Council in 2018–2023
Civic Coalition – 15 seats (chairman of the
club, Cezary Śpiewak-Dowbór)
Law and Justice – 12 seats (president of
the caucus, Kazimierz Koralewski)
Everything for Gdańsk – 7 mandates
(president of the club, Beata Dunajewska)
The inhabitants of Gdańsk elect members of the Sejm from constituency
no. 25. The inhabitants of Gdańsk, together with the inhabitants of
Sopot, elect 1 senator (constituency no. 65). Members of the European
Parliament from constituency No. 1.
The inhabitants of Gdańsk
elect 7 out of 33 councilors to the Sejmik of the Pomeranian Voivodeship
(constituency no. 3).
There are consulates of the following countries in Gdańsk:
Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Gdańsk (Al.
Grunwaldzka 1)
Germany Consulate General of the Federal Republic of
Germany in Gdańsk (Al. Zwycięstwa 23)
Russia Consulate General of the
Russian Federation in Gdańsk (ul. Batorego 15)
Hungary Consulate
General of Hungary in Gdańsk (ul. Doki 1)
Ukraine Consulate General
of Ukraine in Gdańsk (ul. Chrzanowskiego 60A)
Austria Honorary
Consulate of Austria in Gdańsk (ul. Stągiewna 5/2)
Bangladesh
Honorary Consulate of the People's Republic of Bangladesh in Gdańsk (ul.
Grunwaldzka 186)
Bulgaria Honorary Consulate of the Republic of
Bulgaria in Gdańsk (ul. Ołowiana 3A)
Chile Honorary Consulate of the
Republic of Chile in Gdańsk (ul. Obrońców Westerplatte 14, 81-519
Gdynia)
Estonia Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Estonia in
Gdańsk (ul. Strzelecka 7)
Ethiopia Honorary Consulate of the Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in Gdańsk (ul. Jaśkowa Dolina 17)
France Honorary Consulate of the French Republic in Gdańsk (ul.
Wrocławska 82, 81-530 Gdynia)
Spain Honorary Consulate of the Kingdom
of Spain in Gdańsk (ul. Podleśna 27)
Indonesia Honorary Consulate of
Indonesia in Gdańsk (ul. Doki 1)
Iceland Honorary Consulate of the
Republic of Iceland in Gdańsk (ul. Słowackiego 30, 81-872 Sopot)
Kazakhstan Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Gdańsk
(ul. Targ Rybny 11)
Lithuania Honorary Consulate of the Republic of
Lithuania in Gdańsk (ul. Heweliusza 11)
Latvia Honorary Consulate of
the Republic of Latvia in Gdańsk (ul. 3 Maja 19)
Mexico Honorary
Consulate of Mexico in Gdańsk (ul. Grunwaldzka 472d Olivia Six)
Moldova Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Moldova (ul. Piwna 36-39)
Netherlands Honorary Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in
Gdańsk (ul. Wały Piastowskie 1)
Peru Honorary Consulate of the
Republic of Peru in Gdańsk (ul. Długi Targ 11/12)
Seychelles Honorary
Consulate of the Republic of Seychelles in Gdańsk (ul. Na Wzgórzu 36)
Sri Lanka Honorary Consulate of Sri Lanka in Gdańsk (ul. Chmielna 26)
Sweden Honorary Consulate of the Kingdom of Sweden in Gdańsk (ul.
Bielańska 5)
Türkiye Consulate General of Turkey in Gdansk (ul.
Podwale Staromiejskie 104/1)
Great Britain Honorary Consulate of
Great Britain in Gdańsk (ul. Opacka 16)
Uruguay Honorary Consulate of
the Eastern Republic of Uruguay in Gdańsk (ul. Kubacza 7)
Gdańsk, by the decision of the City Council, is divided into 35 auxiliary units called districts. Residents of districts have the right to form local self-government - district councils. In Gdańsk, each district has its own council.