Poland – Pomerania, Westpomerania (Gdańsk, Szczecin) August 22-24, 2019
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Pelpin. Red brick with a great tower and a stained glass window half its height, this church was closed for renovation.
The drive on A1 to Gdansk was very fast but one has to pay close attention to the traffic. A 4-lane divided highway (2 lanes each side), the speed limit was 140, the slowest traffic (large trucks) going 100 and the fast cars 160-200, I averaged over 140kms/hour, the fastest I have driven in Europe in over 1½ years. One has to gauge the slow traffic to avoid getting trapped behind. But the fast drivers were not crazies flashing their lights and being irritated. They seemed to realize this was not an autobahn that requires at least 3-lanes to function.
I had been having tooth pain and made it just in time for a dentist’s appointment I was lucky to obtain the day before.
CASTLE of the TEUTONIC ORDER in MALBORK
This World Heritage Sites may be the most imposing castle in Europe. Viewed from across the river, it presents as a monstrous wall of red brick full of equally imposing buildings.
This 13th-century Teutonic castle and fortress is the largest castle in the world measured by land area. It was originally constructed in 1406 by the Teutonic Knights, a German Catholic religious order of crusaders, in a form of an Ordensburg fortress. The Order named it Marienburg in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus patron saint of the religious Order. In 1457, during the Thirteen Years’ War, it was sold by the Bohemian mercenaries to King Casimir IV of Poland in lieu of indemnities and it since served as one of the several Polish royal residences, interrupted by several years of Swedish occupation, and fulfilling this function until the First Partition of Poland in 1772. From then on the castle came back to German rule for over 170 years. Following Germany’s defeat in World War II in 1945, the land was assigned to Poland by the Allies. Heavily damaged, the castle was renovated under the auspices of modern-day Poland in the second half of the 20th century and most recently in 2016. Nowadays, the castle hosts exhibitions and serves as a museum.
A classic example of a medieval fortress and, on its completion in 1406, was the world’s largest brick castle
Brick Gothic details of the castle. The castle was built by the Teutonic Order after the conquest of Old Prussia from 1274 to 1300 on the southeastern bank of the river Nogat as it was dependent on water for transportation. The Order had been created in Acre (present-day Israel). When this last stronghold of the Crusades fell to Muslim Arabs, the Order moved its headquarters to Venice before arriving in Prussia.
Malbork became more and more important in the aftermath of the Teutonic Knights’ conquest of Gdańsk (Danzig) and Pomerania in 1308. In 1309, in the wake of the papal persecution of the Knights Templar and the Teutonic takeover of Danzig, As with most cities of the time, the new centre.
The castle was expanded several times to house the growing number of Knights. Soon, it became the largest fortified Gothic building in Europe, on a nearly 21-hectare site. The castle has several subdivisions and numerous layers of defensive walls. It consists of three separate castles – the High, Middle and Lower Castles, separated by multiple dry moats and towers. The castle once housed approximately 3,000 “brothers in arms”. The outermost castle walls enclose 21 ha (52 acres), four times the enclosed area of Windsor Castle.
The favourable position of the castle on the river Nogat allowed easy access by barges and trading ships arriving from the Vistula and the Baltic Sea. During their governance, the Teutonic Knights collected river tolls from passing ships, as did other castles along the rivers. They controlled a monopoly on the trade of amber. When the city became a member of the Hanseatic League, many Hanseatic meetings were held there.
In the summer of 1410, the castle was besieged following the Order’s defeat by the armies of Władysław II Jagiełło and Vytautas the Great (Witold) at the Battle of Grunwald and the city outside was razed.
In 1456, during the Thirteen Years’ War, the Order – facing opposition from its cities for raising taxes to pay ransoms for expenses associated with its wars against Kingdom of Poland – could no longer manage financially. Learning that the Order’s Bohemian mercenaries had not been paid, Stibor convinced them to leave and reimbursed them with money raised in Danzig. Following the departure of the mercenaries, King Casimir IV Jagiellon entered the castle in triumph in 1457.
Residence of the Polish kings. Since 1457 it served as one of the several Polish royal residences, fulfilling this function for over 300 years (over twice as long as it was headquarters of the Teutonic Order) until the Partitions of Poland in 1772. During this period the Tall Castle served as the castle’s supply storehouse, while the Great Refectory was a place for balls, feasts, and other royal events. Polish Kings often stayed in the castle, especially when travelling to the nearby city of Gdańsk/Danzig. From 1568 the castle also housed the Polish Admiralty (Komisja Morska) and in 1584 one of the Polish Royal Mints was established here.
During the Thirty Years’ War, in 1626 and 1629 Swedish forces occupied the castle. They invaded and occupied it again 1656 to 1660 during the Deluge.
After the Partitions of Poland. After Prussia and the Russian Empire made the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia province of West Prussia. At that time, the officials used the rather neglected castle as a poorhouse and barracks for the Prussian Army. Throughout the Napoleonic period, the army used the castle as a hospital and arsenal. It became a symbol of Prussian history and national consciousness and in 1816, restoration of the castle was begun.
With the rise of Adolf Hitler to power in the early 1930s, the Nazis used the castle as a destination for annual pilgrimages of both the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls. The Teutonic Castle at Marienburg served as a blueprint for the Order Castles of the Third Reich built under Hitler’s reign. In 1945 during World War II combat in the area, more than half the castle was destroyed.
After World War II. At the conclusion of the war, the city of Marienburg (Malbork) and castle became a part of Poland. The castle has been mostly reconstructed, with restoration ongoing since 1962 following a fire in 1959 which caused further damage. A significant recent restorative effort was of the main church in the castle (i.e., The Blessed Virgin Mary Church). After being restored just before World War II and then destroyed in battle, it was in a state of disrepair until a new restoration was completed in April 2016. Malbork Castle remains the largest brick building in Europe.
Because of my dental appointment, I did not come here after the cathedral in Pelpin (it is quite close) and came from Gdansk, a 60km drive each way. I’m sorry I bothered – this is the worst organized of any World Heritage Site I have ever been to. I will list the issues.
Complaints
Parking. PLN 40, a ridiculously high price. I parked on the street just past the bridge to the castle for free.
Tickets. They are sold about 300m past the entrance. Waste 15 minutes just to buy. They were so slow, I waited 10 minutes behind 3 people just to get a ticket. The ticket booth could easily be a small kiosk at the entrance.
Audioguide. Apparently the audio guide is free and that tours with guides are also provided. You have a choice. I was told neither. I doubt that there was an English tour, but don’t know. I dislike audioguides as they tell you too much information. I much more prefer reading storyboards and labels. I can speed read and only spend time on what is interesting or worthwhile. This place is meant to be seen with an audioguide as there is absolutely no other information in the entire castle except about the toilets (called “danshers”) where the excrement ended up in the moat.
Lack of signs and tour route information. There is none. When you enter the large courtyard, the only signs are “Gothic Restaurant”, “Castle Shop” and “Wcladmchua Upominki” (a souvenir shop). No “Entrance, no “Museum” (in the upper part of the church). Inside the only signs are “No entry, under reconstruction” (at least 3 rooms).
There is one room with a lot of excess information about the reconstruction next to the unlabeled model of the castle. I wandered around and saw every room but most were dead ends and had to be backtracked. There was no continuity. I didn’t know where to begin and the most efficient way to see the castle.
Museum. In the top of the church, this is a bunch of uninteresting swords, daggers, armour and guns. There is a sign about Kuno von Leibeinten (1340-91) but nothing about what he had to do with the building of the castle, just his titles. There are signs about the many kinds of matchlocks used in the guns.
After the European weapon collection, there is a large exhibit on Persian weapons gifted to the castle 3 years ago. What does this have to do with Malbork? Nothing. And who wants to see more swords and armour?
In the reconstruction storyboards, the church sounds like it would have been an amazing place to see. But they obviously chose not to reconstruct it is as a church.
Nothing very interesting to see. Besides a lot of nice Gothic ceilings with brick ribs and some wonderful tiles on the floors, this is not an interesting place. Except for the kitchen, most rooms are relatively empty with sparse furniture and little of interest.
Extra fee to climb the tower. PLN 8, 6 reduced.
The Castle. Fronted by a river and surrounded by a large moat, enter the first large guard tower with a portcullis. Cross another moat and another guard tower and gate to enter the main courtyard surrounded by the church and the large building with the exhibits surrounding another courtyard. Nothing on the lower floor is open. All the rooms are accessed from a second story balcony with nice lacery and arches.
I left knowing absolutely nothing about the castle – its history, who built it and when, the wars it was involved in, its successive owners, certainly nothing about the Teutonic Order. If you don’t get the audio guide, the place is one big blank. I did learn how they took a crap. PLN 45, 35 reduced
GDANSK (Tri city)
It is Poland’s principal seaport and the centre of the country’s fourth-largest metropolitan area. The city is located on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population approaching 1.4 million.
History. The city’s history is complex, with periods of Polish rule, periods of Prussian or German rule, and periods of autonomy or self-rule as a “free city”. In the early-modern age Gdańsk was a royal city of Poland. It was considered the wealthiest and the largest city of Poland, prior to the 18th century rapid growth of Warsaw. Between the world wars, the Free City of Danzig, having a German majority, was in a customs union with Poland and was situated between East Prussia and the so-called Polish Corridor.
Gdańsk lies at the mouth of the Motława River, connected to the Leniwka, a branch in the delta of the nearby Vistula River, which drains 60 percent of Poland and connects Gdańsk with the Polish capital, Warsaw. Together with the nearby port of Gdynia, Gdańsk is also a notable industrial center. In the late Middle Ages it was an important seaport and shipbuilding town and, in the 14th and 15th centuries, a member of the Hanseatic League.
In the interwar period, owing to its multi-ethnic make-up and history, Gdańsk lay in a disputed region between Poland and the Weimar Republic, which later became Nazi Germany. The city’s ambiguous political status was exploited, furthering tension between the two countries, which would ultimately culminate in the Invasion of Poland and the first clash of the Second World War just outside the city limits, followed by the flight and expulsion of the majority of the previous population in 1945. In the 1980s it would become the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, which played a major role in bringing an end to Communist rule in Poland and helped precipitate the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Geography. Gdańsk has a climate with both oceanic and continental influences. The city has moderately cold and cloudy winters with mean temperature in January and February near or below 0 °C (32 °F) and mild summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms.
Economy. The industrial sections of the city are dominated by shipbuilding, petrochemical & chemical industries, and food processing.
Architecture. The city has some buildings surviving from the time of the Hanseatic League. Most tourist attractions are located along or near Ulica Długa (Long Street) and Długi Targ (Long Market), a pedestrian thoroughfare surrounded by buildings reconstructed in historical (primarily during the 17th century) style and flanked at both ends by elaborate city gates.
Neptune’s Fountain in the centre of the Long Market, a masterpiece by architect Abraham van den Blocke, 1617
Gdansk – Town of Memory and Freedom. Tentative WHS(04/11/2005)
The pedestrianized old town is thronged with tourists and tour groups.
Hala Targowa Kupców Dominikańskich. This lovely 1896 market has a brick exterior (with many metal turrets on the roofline)/steel girder construction and has 3 floors – the ground floor with a balcony selling clothes and other goods, the basement has an archaeological dig and food – vegetables, meat, cheese, alcohol and bread. Outside the main building to the south is a large fruit and vegetable market.
Uphagen’s House. This is the only 18th century burgher house in Poland. It was purchased by Johann Uphagne (1732-1802), a wealthy burgher, in 1775 and thoroughly modernized, It remained in his family after his death in 1802 until it was purchased by the city and turned into a museum in 1911. In 1945, along with the entire city, it was completely destroyed, rebuilt in 1955 and opened as a museum in 1998.
3rd floor: lovely modern carved amber, most jewellery, fashion; 2nd floor: several rooms with brocade wallpaper, lovely stucco ceilings and period furniture including several nice ceramic stoves, 1st floor: a small bedroom and kitchen, parlour. PLN 10, 5 reduced National Museum.
St. Mary’s Church. This totally white church with 3 naves of equal height is rather unadorned except for the ornate organ, lovely painted and carved pulpit, the side chapels with art and retablas, the cross beam with the crucifix, gold stars on the vault of the ceiling and the highlight, the gold 3-part altar. Free
History Museum of the City of Gdansk (Gdansk Town Hall). Gdańsk Town Hall, with its 83-meter spire, is one of the city’s main landmarks.
Archaeological evidence for the origins of the town was retrieved mostly after World War II had laid 90 percent of the city center in ruins, enabling excavations. The oldest seventeen settlement levels were dated to between 980 and 1308.
In 1186, a Cistercian monastery was set up in nearby Oliwa, which is now within the city limits. In 1215, the ducal stronghold became the centre of a Pomerelian splinter duchy. At that time the area of the later city included various villages. From at least 1224/25 a German market settlement with merchants from Lübeck existed in the area of today’s Long Market.
Significant German influence did not reappear until the 14th century, after the takeover of the city by the Teutonic Knights. In 1300, the town had an estimated population of 2,000. The city was taken by Danish princes in 1301. The Teutonic Knights were hired by the Polish nobles to drive out the Danes.
Teutonic Knights. Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk). In 1308, the town was taken by Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights restored order. Subsequently, the Knights took over control of the town. Primary sources record a massacre carried out by the Teutonic Knights on the local population, of 10,000 people. The events were used by the Polish crown to condemn the Teutonic Knights in a subsequent papal lawsuit.
The knights colonised the area, replacing local Kashubians and Poles with German settlers. In 1340, the Teutonic Knights built a large fortress, which became the seat of the knights’ Komtur. In 1358, Danzig joined the Hanseatic League. It maintained relations with the trade centers Bruges, Novgorod, Lisboa and Sevilla. In 1380, the New Town was founded as the third, independent settlement.
After a series of Polish-Teutonic Wars, in the Treaty of Kalisz (1343) the Order had to acknowledge that it would hold Pomerelia as a fief from the Polish Crown. Although it left the legal basis of the Order’s possession of the province in some doubt, the city thrived as a result of increased exports of grain (especially wheat), timber, potash, tar, and other goods of forestry from Prussia and Poland via the Vistula River trading routes, although after its capture, the Teutonic Knights tried to actively reduce the economic significance of the town. While under the control of the Teutonic Order German migration increased. The Order’s religious networks helped to develop Danzig’s literary culture. A new war broke out in 1409, culminating in the Battle of Grunwald (1410), and the city came under the control of the Kingdom of Poland. A year later, with the First Peace of Thorn, it returned to the Teutonic Order.
Kingdom of Poland. The Vistula-borne trade of goods in Poland was the main source of prosperity during the city’s Golden Age.
In 1440, the city participated in the foundation of the Prussian Confederation which was an organisation opposed to the rule of the Teutonic Knights. This led to the Thirteen Years’ War against the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia (1454–1466). In 1457, Casimir IV of Poland granted the town the Great Privilege, the town was granted full autonomy and protection by the King of Poland. The privilege removed tariffs and taxes on trade within Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia (present day Belarus and Ukraine) and conferred on the town independent jurisdiction, legislation and administration of her territory, as well as the right to mint its own coin. Furthermore, the privilege united Old Town, Osiek and Main Town, and legalised the demolition of New Town, which had sided with the Teutonic Knights. By 1457, New Town was demolished completely, no buildings remained.
Gaining free and privileged access to Polish markets, the seaport prospered while simultaneously trading with the other Hanseatic cities. After the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) with the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia the warfare between the latter and the Polish crown ended permanently. After the Union of Lublin between Poland and Lithuania in 1569 the city continued to enjoy a large degree of internal autonomy (cf. Danzig Law).
Around 1640, Johannes Hevelius established his astronomical observatory in the Old Town. Beside a majority of German-speakers, whose elites sometimes distinguished their German dialect as Pomerelian, the city was home to a large number of Polish-speaking Poles, Jewish Poles, Latvian speaking Kursenieki, Flemings and Dutch. In addition, a number of Scots took refuge or migrated to and received citizenship in the city. During the Protestant Reformation, most German-speaking inhabitants adopted Lutheranism. Due to the special status of the city and significance within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city inhabitants largely became bi-cultural sharing both Polish and German culture and were strongly attached to the traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The city suffered a last great plague and a slow economic decline due to the wars of the 18th century. As a stronghold of Stanisław Leszczyński’s supporters during the War of the Polish Succession, it was taken by the Russians after the Siege of Danzig in 1734.
Prussia and Germany. Danzig was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793, in the Second Partition of Poland. During the era of Napoleon the city became a free city in the period extending from 1807 to 1814.
In 1815, after France’s defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, it again became part of Prussia and became the capital of Regierungsbezirk Danzig within the province of West Prussia. With the unification of Germany under Prussian hegemony, the city became part of Imperial Germany (the German Empire) in 1871, and remained so until 1919, after Germany’s defeat in World War I.
Inter-war years and World War II – Free City of Danzig. When Poland regained its independence after World War I with access to the sea as promised by the Allies on the basis of Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” (point 13 called for “an independent Polish state”, “which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea”), the Poles hoped the city’s harbour would also become part of Poland.
However, in the end – since Germans formed a majority in the city, with Poles being a minority (in the 1923 census 7,896 people out of 335,921 gave Polish, Kashubian or Masurian as their native language) – the city was not placed under Polish sovereignty. Instead, in accordance with the terms of the Versailles Treaty, it became the Free City of Danzig, an independent quasi-state under the auspices of the League of Nations with its external affairs largely under Polish control – without, however, any public vote to legitimize Germany’s loss of the city. Poland’s rights also included free use of the harbour, a Polish post office, a Polish garrison in Westerplatte district, and customs union with Poland. This led to a considerable tension between the city and the Republic of Poland. The Free City had its own constitution, national anthem, parliament, and government (Senat). It issued its own stamps as well as its currency, the Danzig gulden.
Contemporary times. Parts of the historic old city of Gdańsk, which had suffered large-scale destruction during the war, were rebuilt during the 1950s and 1960s. The reconstruction was not tied to the city’s pre-war appearance, but instead was politically motivated as a means of culturally cleansing and destroying all traces of German influence from the city. Any traces of German tradition were ignored, suppressed, or regarded as “Prussian barbarism” only worthy of demolition, while Flemish/Dutch, Italian and French influences were used to replace the historically accurate Germanic architecture which the city was built upon since the 14th century.
Boosted by heavy investment in the development of its port and three major shipyards for Soviet ambitions in the Baltic region, Gdańsk became the major shipping and industrial center of the Communist People’s Republic of Poland.
In January 2019, the Mayor of Gdansk, Paweł Adamowicz, was assassinated by a man who had just been released from prison for violent crimes; the man claimed after stabbing the mayor in the abdomen, near the heart that the mayor’s political party had been responsible for imprisoning him. Though Adamowicz was able to undergo a multi-hour surgery to try to treat his wounds, he died the next day.
Museum of the Second World War. In the early 1930s the local Nazi Party capitalised on pro-German sentiments and in 1933 garnered 50% of vote in the parliament. Thereafter, the Nazis under Gauleiter Albert Forster achieved dominance in the city government, which was still nominally overseen by the League of Nations’ High Commissioner. The German government officially demanded the return of Danzig to Germany along with an extraterritorial (meaning under German jurisdiction) highway through the area of the Polish Corridor for land-based access from the rest of Germany. Hitler used the issue of the status of the city as a pretext for attacking Poland and on May 1939, during a high level meeting of German military officials explained to them: “It is not Danzig that is at stake. For us it is a matter of expanding our Lebensraum in the east”, adding that there will be no repeat of the Czech situation, and Germany will attack Poland at first opportunity, after isolating the country from its Western Allies. After the German proposals to solve the three main issues peacefully were refused and the sixteen point proposal had been undermined by the British Government, German-Polish relations rapidly deteriorated. Germany attacked Poland on 1 September after having signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union (this includes the Secret Part with the upcoming treatment of the Baltic States) in late August and after postponing the attack three times due to needed time for diplomatic, peaceful solutions.
The German attack began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at Westerplatte by the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein, and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Outnumbered Polish defenders at Westerplatte resisted for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce day-long fight (1 September 1939), defenders of the Polish Post office were tried and executed then buried on the spot in the Danzig quarter of Zaspa in October 1939. In 1998 a German court overturned their conviction and sentence.
The city was officially annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. About 50 percent of members of the Jewish Community of Danzig had left the city within a year after a Pogrom in October 1937, after the Kristallnacht riots in November 1938 the community decided to organize its emigration and in March 1939 a first transport to Palestine started. By September 1939 barely 1,700 mostly elderly Jews remained. In early 1941, just 600 Jews were still living in Danzig, most of whom were later murdered in the Holocaust. Out of the 2,938 Jewish community in the city 1,227 were able to escape from the Nazis before the outbreak of war. Nazi secret police had been observing Polish minority communities in the city since 1936, compiling information, which in 1939 served to prepare lists of Poles to be captured in Operation Tannenberg. On the first day of the war, approximately 1,500 ethnic Poles were arrested, some because of their participation in social and economic life, others because they were activists and members of various Polish organisations. On 2 September 1939, 150 of them were deported to the Sicherheitsdienst camp Stutthof some 30 miles (48 km) from Danzig, and murdered. Many Poles living in Danzig were deported to Stutthof or executed in the Piaśnica forest.
In 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, eventually causing the fortunes of war to turn against Germany. As the Soviet Army advanced in 1944, German populations in Central and Eastern Europe took flight, resulting in the beginning of a great population shift. After the final Soviet offensives began in January 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees converged on Danzig, many of whom had fled on foot from East Prussia, some tried to escape through the city’s port in a large-scale evacuation involving hundreds of German cargo and passenger ships. Some of the ships were sunk by the Soviets, including the Wilhelm Gustloff after an evacuation was attempted at neighbouring Gdynia. In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed.
The city also endured heavy Allied and Soviet air raids. Those who survived and could not escape had to face the Soviet Army, which captured the heavily damaged city on 30 March 1945, followed by large-scale rape and looting. In line with the decisions made by the Allies at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the city was annexed by Poland. The remaining German residents of the city who had survived the war fled or were forcibly expelled from their home city to postwar Germany, and the city was repopulated by ethnic Poles; up to 18 percent (1948) of them had been deported by the Soviets in two major waves from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union, i.e. from the eastern portion of pre-war Poland. PLN 20, 15 reduced
European Solidarity Centre. In December 1970, Gdańsk was the scene of anti-regime demonstrations, which led to the downfall of Poland’s communist leader Władysław Gomułka. During the demonstrations in Gdańsk and Gdynia, military as well as the police opened fire on the demonstrators causing several dozen deaths. Ten years later, in August, 1980, Gdańsk Shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement.
In September 1981, in order to deter Solidarity, Soviet Union launched Exercise Zapad-81, the largest military exercise in history, during which amphibious landings were conducted near Gdansk. Meanwhile, the Solidarity held its first national congress in Hala Olivia, Gdansk when more than 800 deputies participated. Its opposition to the Communist regime led to the end of Communist Party rule in 1989, and sparked a series of protests that overthrew the Communist regimes of the former Soviet bloc. Solidarity’s leader, Lech Wałęsa, became President of Poland in 1990. In 2014 the European Solidarity Centre, a museum and library devoted to the history of the movement, opened in Gdańsk.
The Gdansk shipyard was the birthplace of Solidarity, a social movement and trade union that united citizens in a peaceful fight for freedom and human rights. It was the crucial first step in the democratic transformation of Europe.
Housed in a unique building of rusted steel plates fronted by fountains and an infinity waterfall, there is a permanent exhibit on Solidarity. The temporary exhibit was photographs by Chris Niedenthal (b 1950) documenting the revolutions across the Soviet controlled countries of Eastern Europe in 1989-92. He was at all the protests.
Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970. On December 12, 1970, the Polish government raised the price of meat and other foodstuffs. On Dec 14, the workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk began a demonstration. On Dec 16, the arm fired at workers as they were emerging from the shipyard and again on Dec 17, killing 45 and injuring 1165. Those responsible were never brought to trial.
The monument is outside the Solidarity Centre, It is three tall square columns each ending in a cross with a ship’s anchor attached to the cross. Each column has several bronze bas reliefs on the bottom
Westerplatte. This was the beginning of WW II when the Germans shelled this peninsula on Sept 1, 1939, then conducted airstrikes on Sept 2nd and 3rd. The Poles surrendered on Sept 7 and Hitler visited on Sept 22nd. 200,000 Poles were expelled from Gadynia and 20,000 murdered in camps. There is a large multifaceted stone column with writing and figures on a small hill, several dioramas detailing the battle, ruined barracks and a small museum in Guardhouse I.
Monument to defenders of Polish Gdańsk also commemorates the victims of the 1308 massacre carried out by the Teutonic Knights. PLN 10, 5 reduced
Galeria Bałtycka. Another large shopping mall north of Gdansk. All the big stores with supposedly the best shopping in Gdansk with more than 200 stores on 3 levels and a great food hall.
Abbot’s Palace (Oliwa). Art museum with several exhibits: Theatre Design, paintings by Abdjlqader Al Rais, Resa Mahoodi Paintings on feminitiy, and paper mache dolls by Hildegard Skowasch. This is also an open-air concert venue. 20, 15 reduced
In front is a nice church with many Baroque elements – pulpit, carved wood choir stalls, altar with black columns and a round white marble creation surrounding a rose window.
Wisłoujście Fortress. A historic fortress located in Gdańsk by the Martwa Wisła river, by an old estuary of the river Vistula, flowing into the Bay of Gdańsk.
Different parts of the fortress ar clearly in different architectural styles (predominantly Gothic) and in different styles of construction and building materials. This is the result of the fortress being rebuilt every time it was destroyed or badly damaged. The basement and foundation of the fortress is based on wooden crates (kaszyce), which are hidden underneath in the water. On top of these structures, rubble was heaped up and strengthened – providing a stable and strong base for the fortress. The heart of the fortress is based around a circular tower (currently devoid of the coping), which until 1785 was used as a lighthouse. The lighthouse is surrounded by a brick flange (circular battery), Around the battery there is a four-bastion Fort Carré, which is led by a gatehouse with a postern from 1609. The north-western side of the fort-carré is adjoined to the Martwa Wisła river, while the rest of the fortress is separated off from land by the Eastern Sconce. The sconce is lined up with five bastions, two of which are ravelins – one of which survived. The Fort carré as well as the Eastern Sconce are surrounded by a moat, sourced by the Martwa Wisła river.
Up until 1889, the lighthouse tower was topped with a later-Baroque coping, from about 1721. After its burning, due to a fire caused by lightning, the coping was reconstructed and coated with shale, which survived up until 1945. The tower had formerly a clock, dating back to the eighteenth century.
In 1945, due to artillery strikes the tower was almost completely destroyed, the coping and officers’ headquarters and upper levels were also devastated. The only parts of the fortress which were left untouched, were the walls of the Fort Carré. In 1959 the tower was added to the Register of Heritage Sites, and reconstruction of the fortress began.
History. During the times of the Teutonic Order, in the fourteenth century, a wooden fortress stood by the mouth of the river Vistula, flowing into the Baltic Sea; which was burnt down by a Hussite Sirotci raid, in September, 1433. In 1482, a brick lighthouse tower was built in place of the former fortress. The tower was assigned to control the passage of ships, traveling to and fro from the Bay of Gdańsk’s main port cities of Gdańsk and Gdynia. The Wisłoujście Fortress was target for military campaigns. In 1577 the fortress was besieged several times by Stefan Batory, inconclusively, during the Battle of Oliwa (1627), when the fortress was cannonaded by a Swedish fleet; in 1734 by Russian-Saxon, in 1793 by Prussian, in 1807 by Napoleonic, and once again in 1814 by Prussian fleets. Between 1622-1629 the fortress was known as Latarnia (Lighthouse, Polish), under the name of a fortress – while actually being a naval base of the. On the night of July 5–6, 1628, the fortress was attacked with artillery fire, from a Swedish fleet traveling from Wisłoujście, into the fortress, sinking the vessel Złoty Lew (Golden Lion, Polish), and a galleon.
Surrounded by a large moat, part of the Marwa River, this square fort has large corner bastions and a central fort with a tower. The museum has a lot of archaeology. PLN 15, 10 reduced
Islands of Gdansk. A small group of islands in the Baltic Sea:
Port Island – Area: 25.7 km2, population: 22,167
Sobieszewo Island – Area: 34.3 km², population: 3,570
Ostrów Island
Granary Island
Ołowianka
Sopot Beach. Sopot is one of the Tricity of Gdansk. It is a resort town and major tourist destination. The large white sand beach is very popular and divided in two by a pier. PLN 8, 6 reduced
Crooked House (Krzywy Domek, Polish for “crooked house”) is an unusually shaped building in Sopot, Poland built in 2004. It is about 4,000 square meters (43,000 sq ft) in size and is part of the Rezydent shopping center.
It was designed by Szotyńscy & Zaleski, who were inspired by the fairytale illustrations and drawings of Jan Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg. It can be entered from either Monte Cassino or Morska Streets and its primary business is a Costa Coffee shop in the front.
GDYNIA
Emigration Museum. The Polish diaspora refers to Poles who live outside Poland and is called Polonia in Polish, which is the name for Poland in Latin and in many Romance languages.
There are roughly 20,000,000 people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest in the world and one of the most widely dispersed. Reasons for the displacement include border shifts, forced expulsions, resettlement by voluntary and forced exiles as well as political and economic emigration. Major populations of Polish ancestry can be found in their native home region of Central Europe and in many other countries of Europe and also well in the Americas, Australasia and South Africa. There are also smaller Polish communities in most countries of Asia and Africa.
History. Poles participated in the creation of first European settlements in the Americas. In the 17th century, Polish missionaries arrived for the first time in Japan. Huge numbers of Poles left the country during the Partitions of Poland for economic and political reasons as well as the ethnic persecution practised by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Many of the Poles who emigrated were Jews, who make up part of the Jewish diaspora. The restored Second Polish Republic was home to the world’s largest Jewish population as late as 1938 because of the massive influx of new refugees escaping persecution. It was followed by invasions of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million Polish Jews were murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany during World War II. Most survivors subsequently migrated to Mandate Palestine since Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free Jewish aliyah without visas or exit permits at the end of the war. Many remaining Jews, including Stalinist hardliners and members of security apparatus, left Poland during the 1968 political crisis, when the Polish United Workers’ Party, pressured by Leonid Brezhnev, joined the Soviet “anti-Zionist” campaign that was triggered by the Six-Day War. In 1998, Poland’s Jewish population was estimated at 10,000 to 30,000.
A recent, large emigration of Poles took place after Poland’s accession to the European Union and opening of the EU’s labour market. About 2 million primarily-young Poles took up jobs abroad.
Most Poles live in Europe, the Americas and Australia, but a few Poles have settled in smaller numbers in Asia, Africa and Oceania, as economic migrants or as part of Catholic missions.
Belarus. 396,000, the second-largest ethnic minority in the country, after Russians. Most Poles live in the west of Belarus (including 294,000 in the Grodno Region.
During the Second World War, the Soviet Union forcibly resettled large numbers of Belarusian Poles to Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Few Belarusian Poles now live in Siberia and the Russian Far East, and some of those who managed to survive resettlement returned to Poland after 1956.
Czech Republic. Concentrated in Cieszyn Silesia. It traces its origins to border changes after the First World War that partitioned the area between Poland and what was then Czechoslovakia, leaving many Poles on what is now the Czech side of the border. The Polish population was 51,968 at the 2001 census.
Denmark. 40,000 Poles live in Denmark, mostly in Copenhagen.
France. 1 million. Prominent members have included Frédéric Chopin, Adam Mickiewicz, Rene Goscinny, Marie Curie, Michel Poniatowski, Raymond Kopa, Ludovic Obraniak and Edward Gierek. For centuries, there was an alliance between the France and the Polish-Lithuanian Commmonwealth. Many Poles settled in France after the rule of Napoleon and the collapse of the Duchy of Warsaw, when 100,000 Poles, largely political refugees, fled the Russians and Prussians, who took over Poland. The Great Emigration, from the first half of the 19th century onwards, caused many Poles to be enlisted to fight in the French army. Another wave of Polish migration took place between the two World Wars, when many were hired as contract workers to work temporarily in France. Polish refugees also fled the Nazi and the Soviet occupations in the 1940s. From 100,000 to 200,000 Poles have been estimated to live in Paris. Many EU guest workers are the south of France, including the cities of Arles, Marseille and Perpignan.
Germany. The second-largest Polonia in the world and the largest in Europe is the Polish minority in Germany. 2 – 3 million. Polish surnames are very common in Germany.
Greece. 50,000, most of whom are first-generation immigrants.
Hungary. The Polish minority in Hungary is around 10,000 and has a long history of over 1000 years. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth included large areas of Hungarian territories, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918) included the Polish region of Galicia. Hungary–Poland relations are strong and positive and best described in a poem, “Pole, Hungarian, two good friends,”.
Iceland. The Polish minority in Iceland is relatively new, but for almost a decade, it has already been the largest minority. In 2014, Poles were 3.13% of the total population of Iceland and, by far, the largest immigrant group.
Ireland. After Poland joined the European Union in 2004, Ireland immediately opened its borders and welcomed Polish workers as relatively-cheap qualified labour (only the United Kingdom and Sweden did the same). 122,585 Poles living in Ireland. the largest ethnic minority in the country.
Italy. 97,986, most Poles are late-20th-century immigrants drawn by the Italian economy’s desire for imported labour.
Lithuania. 200,317; at 6.6% of the population, it is now the largest ethnic minority in Lithuania. Enforced Lithuanization of Polish surnames and the removal of bilingual Polish-language street signs in municipalities predominantly inhabited by the Polish-speaking population.
Benelux. 135,000, most are guest workers from the European Union contract labour program. Most are in The Hague (30,000), in Amsterdam and industrial towns or cities like Utrecht and Groningen. Polish immigrants arrived to find employment in the country in the 19th and the 20th centuries. Belgium has 70,000
Norway. 108,255 Poles in Norway, 2.10% of the Norwegian population and the largest ethnic minority in the country.
Romania. 3,671 Poles mainly in the villages of the Suceava region (Polish: Suczawa). There are even three exclusively Polish villages: Nowy Sołoniec (Soloneţu Nou), Plesza (Pleşa) and Pojana Mikuli (Poiana Micului). Poles in Romania form an officially recognised national minority and have one seat in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania (currently held by Ghervazen Longher) and access to Polish elementary schools and cultural centres (known as “Polish Houses”).
Russia and former Soviet Union. During the Second World War, the Soviet Union annexed large parts of Poland’s former eastern territories of Kresy. Many Poles were expelled, but a significant number remained in what is now Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities also forcibly resettled large numbers of Poles to Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Spain. 45,000 – 60,000. The Polish population is mainly guest workers who took advantage of Spain’s economic boom during the 1990s. The Polish minority in Spain is relatively young, 74% are between 20 and 49 years old.
Sweden. Like only the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sweden let Poles work in the country once Poland joined the European Union in 2004. 103,191 people, 88,704 of whom are born in Poland and 14,487 with both of their parents being born in Poland. Poles are thus Sweden’s fifth-largest immigrant group, after Finns, Iraqis, former Yugoslavs and Syrians. Most of them are guest workers who have been invited to Sweden since 1990 by contracts with the Swedish government. Historically, Poland and Sweden had some cultural exchange, and the Swedish Empire’s occupation of the Polish Baltic Sea coast (Gdańsk and Pomerania) in various times from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
Turkey. In 1842, Prince Adam Czartoryski founded the village of Adampol for Polish immigrants who came to Turkey after the failed November Uprising. The village still exists and is now called Polonezköy (Turkish for Polish Village). It is the main centre of the small but historic Polish community in Turkey. The Polish minority in Turkey has been estimated to be around 4,000 people.
United Kingdom. It was only after the First World War that Poles settled in large numbers in London – many from the Prisoner of War camps in Alexandra Palace and Feltham. During the Second World War many Poles came to the United Kingdom as political émigrés and to join the Polish Armed Forces in the West being recreated there. When the Second World War ended, a Communist government was installed in Poland and was hostile to servicemen returning from the West. 150,000, after occupying resettlement camps, later settled in UK.
After Poland’s entry into the European Union in May 2004, Poles gained the right to work in some other EU countries. While France and Germany put in place temporary controls to curb Central European migration, the United Kingdom (along with only Sweden and the Republic of Ireland) did not impose restrictions. Many young Poles have come to work in the UK since then. Estimates in 2007: 300,000 – 800,000. The numbers were reported to be decreasing again in 2008.
Poland had overtaken India as the most common overseas country of birth for foreign-born people living in the United Kingdom in 2015.
North America. The United States and Canada were the major focus of Polish political and economic migration since 1850 up until the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Canada. 1,106,585 Polish Canadians. The population is widely dispersed across Canada. The first Polish immigrants came to Canada in the 19th century. One of the largest concentrations of Polish-Canadians is in the Roncesvalles area of Toronto. The area holds an annual Polish Festival, Canada’s largest.
Haiti. 5,000 Poles fighting in Polish Legions in the Napoleonic armies were sent to fight against the rebelling Haitians. Many of the Poles who were sent there felt it wrong to fight against the Haitians who were fighting for their freedom—just like the Poles in the Napoleonic armies—and some 400 Poles changed sides. After the war, the Haitian constitution stated that because the Poles switched sides and fought for their cause, all Poles could become Haitian citizens. Many of the Poles who were sent to Haiti stayed there. Most of their descendants live in Cazale and Fond-des-Blancs.
Mexico. The first Polish immigrants to Mexico arrived in the late 19th century. During World War II, Mexico received thousands of refugees from Poland, primarily of Jewish origin, who settled in the states of Chihuahua and Nuevo León.
United States. 10 million. Chicago bills itself as the largest Polish city outside the Polish capital, Warsaw with185,000 Polish-speakers in the Chicago metropolitan area. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Baltimore and New Britain also have very large Polish populations.
Buffalo is seen as Polonia’s second city in the US, as it is also home to many Polish-Americans. Its steel mills and automobile factories provided jobs for many Polish immigrants in the early 20th century. The only city to have official celebrations inspired by the popular Polish custom of Dyngus Day is Buffalo.
South America. There has been political and economic migration of Poles to South America since the mid-19th century. The largest number went to Brazil, followed by Argentina and Chile.
Argentina. 500,000. The Parliament of Argentina has declared June 8 to be Polish Settlers’ Day.
Brazil. 3 million. Most Polish Brazilians are Catholic, but there are nonreligious minorities. The oldest (1871) and largest concentration of Poles is in the city of Curitiba, Paraná. Another large community is to be found in Espírito Santo. Both are in the South and Southeastern Regions.
Chile. After World War II, from 1947 to 1951, around 1,500 Poles, mostly Zivilarbeitero as well as some former soldiers and Nazi concentration camp inmates settled in Chile. 45,000, most live in Santiago de Chile. One of the notable Polish Chileans is Ignacy Domeyko.
Australia. 160,000 – 200,000. The first Polish settlers arrived in South Australia in 1856. After World War II, many displaced persons migrated from Poland to Australia, including soldiers from the Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade (the “Rats of Tobruk”).
New Zealand. In 1944, several hundred Polish children and their caregivers, survivors of forced resettlement of Poles to Soviet Siberia were temporarily resettled at a refugee camp at Pahiatua, New Zealand. It was originally planned for the children to return to Poland after World War II ended, but they were eventually allowed to stay in New Zealand after the onset of the Cold War.
Israel. In the early years of Zionism, Jewish immigrants from Poland (then divided between Austria-Hungary, Prussia and the Russian Empire) were a significant part of the ideologically-motivated immigration to the then Palestine during the Second Aliya and the Third Aliyah. Many Jews of Polish origin had prominent roles in building up the Yishuv, the autonomous Zionist-oriented Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine from which Israel developed. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Jewish Displaced Persons in Europe who eventually got to Israel were also of Polish origin. In later generations, they generally abandoned the Polish and Yiddish languages, in favour of Modern Hebrew.
About 4,000 non-Jewish ethnic Poles live in Israel. There are also about 50,000 Jewish immigrants from Poland, with an affinity to the Polish language and culture and about 150,000 of their descendants with very little of that affinity left.
South Africa. 25,000 – 30,000. Dating to World War II, when the South African government agreed to the settlement of 12,000 Polish soldiers as well as around 500 Polish orphans who were survivors of forced resettlement of Poles to Soviet Siberia. More Poles came in the 1970s and 1980s, with several of them specialists coming for work contracts and deciding to stay there.
Dar Pomorza. The 3-masted steel sailing ship was built in 1905 in Hamburg. After the war, it was awarded to Poland as war reparations. Made a round the world trip, trip to Cape Horn, Docked here since 1981.
ORP Błyskawica. This destroyer has a museum on the 1st deck, then enter the engine rooms on two decks. Not very interesting. PLN 24, 12 reduced including Polish Navy museum.
Motor Museum. A small museum with not many interesging cars and a lot of motorcycles. PLN 10, no reduction.
Hel Peninsula (Mierzeja Helska). is a 35-km-long sand bar peninsula in northern Poland separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. The name of the peninsula probably comes from old-Polish word “hyl/hel” meaning empty, exposed place.
The width of the peninsula varies from approximately 300 m near Jurata, through 100 m in the most narrow part to over 3 km at the tip. Since the peninsula was formed entirely of sand, it is frequently turned into an island by winter storms. Until the 17th century the peninsula was a chain of islands that formed a strip of land only during the summer.
A road and a railroad run along the peninsula from the mainland to the town located at the furthest point, Hel, a popular tourist destination. Other towns, ports, and tourist resorts are Jurata, Jastarnia, Kuźnica, Chałupy, and Władysławowo.
The Hel Peninsula was part of Prussia and then Germany from 1772 until 1919. After the peninsula became part of the Second Polish Republic after World War I, it acquired considerable military significance (Polish Corridor), and was turned into a fortified region, with a garrison of about 3,000. In the course of the Battle of Hel in 1939, Polish forces dynamited the peninsula at one point, turning it into an island.
During the years of German occupation (1939–1945), Hel’s defenses were further expanded, and a battery of three 40.6 cm SK C/34 gun was constructed, though the guns were soon moved to the Atlantic Wall in occupied France. The peninsula remained in German hands until the end of World War II, when the defending forces surrendered on May 14, 1945, six days after Germany had capitulated.
After the war, when Hel again became part of Poland, it continued to have military significance, with much of its area reserved for military use. Additional gun batteries were built during the 1940s and 1950s. Today many of the fortifications and batteries are open to tourists, though some areas of the peninsula still belong to the Polish Armed Forces.
On a hot Friday afternoon in August, the road here was a nightmare: rarely above 60kms/hour. I drove as far as the beach.
Jurata Beach. The beach faces the Bay of Puck, a shallow western branch of the Bay of Gdańsk. It is separated from the open sea by the Hel Peninsula. As the bay has an average depth of 2-6 m, the beach is shallow. The bay can only be used by small fishing boats and yachts, which have to stick to the strict deeper routes.
Besides swimming, this is a very popolar wind and kite surfing destination.
Łeba. A NM “small town” it lies near Łebsko Lake and the mouth of the river Łeba on the coast of the Baltic Sea.
It developed to a fishing port and a wood marketplace. Old Leba was threatened for many centuries by floods and expanding sand dunes and therefore was rebuilt in a safer location after 1558. With the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, Leba was incorporated into Prussia. Soon after a large port was built and a 34-metre broad channel between the Leba lake and the Baltic Sea was dug, which however did not weather the storms on the coast. Due to its picturesque setting, the Leba seaside after World War I became a popular resort for German bohémiens.
In the proximity of Leba there is a large former testing area for long-range rocket weapons between 1941 and 1945. Also the V-1 flying bomb was tested here from 1943 to 1945. The local populace was evacuated by the Nazis or expelled and replaced by Poles.
There is an abundance of architectural and natural attractions: the Słowiński National Park with its moving sand dunes, about 8 kilometres west of the city.
Ruins of the St. Nicholas church, Fishermen’s church of 1683, fishermen’s dwellings from the 19th century, 19th century casino on Nadmorska street, today the Hotel Neptun.
Before World War II the (then German) inhabitants of the town were predominately Prostestant and since the end predominantly Roman Catholics.
Słowiński National Park. Created in 1967, it is 186.18 km2 of which 102.13 km2 is waters and 45.99 km2 forests. The strictly preserved zone covers 56.19 km2. In 1977 UNESCO designated the park a biosphere reserve.
The park is named after the Slavic people known as Slovincians (Polish: Słowińcy), who used to live in this swampy, inaccessible area at the edge of Lake Leba. In the village of Kluki there is an open-air museum presenting aspects of this people’s former life and culture.
In the past, the park’s area was a Baltic Sea bay. The sea’s activity, however, created sand dunes that over time separated the bay from the Baltic Sea. As waves and wind carry sand inland the dunes slowly move, at a speed of 3 to 10 metres per year. Some dunes are quite high – up to 30 metres. The highest peak of the park – Rowokol (115 metres (377 ft) above sea level) – is also an excellent observation point. The “moving dunes” are regarded as a curiosity of nature on a European scale.
Water occupies 55% of park’s area – lakes: Lebsko, Gardino, and Dolgie Wielkie. Both Lebsko and Gardno lakes were previously bays. There are also seven rivers crossing the park, the largest being the Łeba and the Łupawa.
Forests in the park are mainly made of pines and peat bogs of several types. Birds species number 257 plus deer, wild pigs and hares.
There are around 140 kilometres of tourist walking trails. Beside the lakes are observation towers. Around the park there are many parking sites as well as hotels and camp sites, especially in Łeba.
SLUPSK (pop 91,000)
Located near the Baltic Sea and on the Słupia River, Słupsk had its origins as a Pomeranian settlement in the early Middle Agesd. In 1265 it was given town rights. By the 14th century, the town had become a centre of local administration and trade and a Hanseatic League associate. Between 1368 and 1478, it was the residence of the Dukes of Słupsk, until 1474 vassals of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1648, according to the peace treaty of Osnabrück, Stolp became part of Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1815 it was incorporated into the newly formed Prussian Province of Pomerania. After World War II the city was assigned to Poland as part of the recovered territories.
Słupsk Castle (Museum of Central Pomerania in Słupsk ). Mostly furniture and religious art on the 1st floor, local art on the second. PLN 10, 5 reduction
Gąski Lighthouse. Located about 100 metres from the coast of the Baltic Sea it was built between 1876-78 using red bricks, has a height of 41.2 metres, with the lighthouse’s light having a focal height of 50.1 metres.
Originally it was fitted with a Fresnel lens with kerosene lamps. The intermittent beam was achieved by three screens rotated by a clock-work mechanism. In 1927 the kerosene lamps were replaced by electric lamp. In 1948, after the Second World War, the lighthouse was reactivated and the clock mechanism was replaced by an electric motor, with the rotation frequency changed from 12 to 15 seconds. The current range of the lighthouse’s light glare is about 43.5 kilometres.
The lighthouse is open to the public, allowing tourists to access its top view point. From here there are panoramic views of the Baltic Sea, where one can see the nearby settlements of Sarbinowo, Chłopy, Mielno, and Unieście, all of which are nearby resort towns and villages. At the base of the tower there is a tacky collection of souvenir shops, air hockey games, fast-food stands and picnic tables.
In the tacky resort village of Gaski, this imposing brick lighthouse has 221 steps to the viewpoint. The walls are 2m thick and surround a central 1.5m round column./wall-murals-gaski-lighthouse.jpg.jpg)
KOLOBZEG
Museum of Polish Arms
Kołobrzeg Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located at the entrance to the port of Kołobrzeg, it stands on the right bank of the river Parsęta. The lighthouse is located in between the lighthouse in Niechorze (about 34 km to the west) and the lighthouse in Gąski (22 km to the east). The history of the Kołobrzeg Lighthouse dates back to 1666. In World War II the lighthouse was blown up by German engineers as it was a good look-out point for the Polish artillery in March 1945. After the Second World War the lighthouse was built at a slightly different location from the original, using the foundations of the fort buildings complex; located close by to the town. The lighthouse is 26 metres tall, with a range of its light glare of 29.6 kilometres. In 1981 the lighthouse was renovated and the 50 cm diameter lens was replaced by a rotating set of halogen bulbs. The wooden staircase was also replaced by a metal one. The base of the lighthouse houses a mineral rock museum. It sits on a huge brick round base, then the round base and a round brick tower. It is a very imposing structure.
The drive here was through flat agricultural land and mature forest. The road was lined for much of it by large oak trees that formed a complete canopy over the highway.
WOLIN Island. Wolin is the name both of the Polish island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast, and a town on that island. Wolin is separated from the island of Usedom (Uznam) by the Strait of Świna, and from mainland Pomerania by the Strait of Dziwna. The island has an area of 265 km2 and its highest point is Mount Grzywacz at 116 m above sea level
Water from the river Odra (German: Oder) flows into the Szczecin Lagoon and from there through the Peene west of Usedom, Świna and Dziwna into the Bay of Pomerania in the Baltic Sea.
Most of the island consists of forests and postglacial hills. In the middle is the Wolin National Park. The island is a main tourist attraction of northwestern Poland, and it is crossed by several specially marked tourist trails, such as a 73-kilometer-long (45 mi) trail from Międzyzdroje to Dziwnówek. There is a main, electrified rail line, which connects Szczecin and Świnoujście, plus the international road E65 (national road 3 / S3 expressway) crosses the island.
USEDOM Island. (pop. 76,000, German 31,500 and Poland 45,000)
This Baltic Sea island in Pomerania has been divided since 1945 between Germany and Poland. It is the second biggest Pomeranian island after Rügen.
It is situated north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the River Oder. About 80% of the island belongs to the German district of Vorpommern-Greifswald in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The eastern part and the largest city on the island, Świnoujście are part of the Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The island’s total area is 445km2.
With an annual average of 1906 sunshine hours, Usedom is the sunniest region of both Germany and Poland, and it is also one of the sunniest islands in the Baltic Sea, hence its nickname “Sun Island”. The island has been a tourist destination since the Gründerzeit in the 19th century, and features resort architecture. Seaside resorts include Zinnowitz and the Amber Spas in the west, the Kaiserbad and Świnoujście in the east.
Świnoujście Lighthouse. At a height of 212 feet (65 m) it is the fifteenth tallest “traditional lighthouse” in the world, as well as the tallest brick lighthouse and the tallest in Poland. It is located on the east bank of the river Świna just inside the entrance. The first lighthouse in the location was built in 1828 when the town was part of Germany as Swinemünde. The current structure is from 1857.
The base of the tower is octagonal with a gallery. The tower itself is round with a second gallery and a lantern. In clear weather the view from the top gallery is about 45 kilometres. Adjacent to the tower is a 2-story brick keeper’s house and a museum.
There are 300 steps up to the second gallery.
The tower was damaged during World War II. In 1945, during the retreat of the German troops, an order was given to destroy the lighthouse. However, the German keeper refused the order and the tower survived. The damage was only repaired in 1959, some fourteen years after the town was transferred to Poland.
The tower is built of yellow bricks and is unpainted.
It is a long circuitous drive around a tank farm, industrial site and port to get here. It is a very imposing lighthouse sitting on a large rectangular brick building that serves as the museum.
Sitting next to the lighthouse is Fort Gerharda that can be visited.
SZCZCIN (pop 403,000)
Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport and Poland’s seventh-largest city. On the Oder, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin is adjacent to the town of Police and is the urban centre of the Szczecin agglomeration, an extended metropolitan area that includes communities in the German states of Brandenburgand Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
History. The city’s recorded history began in the 8th century as a Slavic Pomeranian stronghold, built at the site of the Ducal castle. In the 12th century, when Szczecin had become one of Pomerania’s main urban centres, it lost its independence to Piast Poland, the Duchy of Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark, and became completely German speaking by the 14th century. At the same time, the House of Griffins established themselves as local rulers and the population was Christianized. After the Treaty of Stettin in 1630, the town came under the control of the Swedish Empire and became in 1648 the Capital of Swedish Pomerania until 1720, when it was acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia and then the German Empire.
From 1683 to 1812, one Jew was permitted to reside in Stettin, and an additional Jew was allowed to spend a night in the city in case of “urgent business”. Only after the Prussian Edict of Emancipation of 11 March 1812, which granted Prussian citizenship to all Jews living in the kingdom, did a Jewish community emerge in Stettin, with the first Jews settling in the town in 1814. Construction of a synagogue started in 1834. The Jewish community had between 1,000 and 1,200 members by 1873, 3,000 members by 1927–28 and 2,322 in late 1934.
After the Franco Prussian war of 1870–1871, 1,700 French POWs were imprisoned there in deplorable conditions, resulting in the death of 600 of them; after the Second World War monuments in their memory were built by the Polish authorities.
Until 1873, Stettin remained a fortress. When part of the defensive structures were levelled, a new neighbourhood, Neustadt (“New Town”) as well as water pipes, sewerage and drainage, and gas works were built to meet the demands of the growing population.
During World War II, Stettin was the base for the German 2nd Motorised Infantry Division, which cut across the Polish Corridor and was later used in 1940 as an embarkation point for Operation Weserübung, Germany’s assault on Denmark and Norway.
As the war started, the number of non-Germans in the city increased as slave workers were brought in. The first transports came in 1939 from Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Łódź. They were mainly used in a synthetic silk factory near Stettin. The next wave of slave workers was brought in 1940, in addition to PoWs who were used for work in the agricultural industry. According to German police reports from 1940, 15,000 Polish slave workers lived within the city.
During the war, 135 forced labour camps for slave workers were established in the city. Most of the 25,000 slave workers were Poles, but Czechs, Italians, Frenchmen and Belgians, as well as Dutch citizens, were also enslaved in the camps.
In February 1940, the Jews of Stettin were deported to the Lublin reservation. International press reports emerged, describing how the Nazis forced Jews, regardless of age, condition and gender, to sign away all property and loaded them onto trains headed to the camp, escorted by members of the SA and SS. Due to publicity given to the event, German institutions ordered such future actions to be made in a way unlikely to attract public notice. The action was the first deportation of Jews from prewar territory in Nazi Germany.
Throughout the war, Stettin was a major port of disembarkation for Baltic Germans returning to the ‘fatherland’, and later in the war those fleeing the advancing Soviet Red Army
Allied air raids in 1944 and heavy fighting between the German and Soviet armies destroyed 65% of Stettin’s buildings and almost all of the city centre, the seaport, and local industries. Polish Home Army intelligence assisted in pinpointing targets for Allied bombing in the area of Stettin. The city itself was covered by the Home Army’s “Bałtyk” structure, and Polish resistance infiltrated Stettin’s naval yards. Other activities of the resistance consisted of smuggling people to Sweden.
Nearly 400,000 Germans fled or were expelled from Stettin in 1945. The Soviet Red Army captured the city on 26 April.
Polish authorities tried to gain control, but in the following month, the Polish administration was twice forced to leave. Finally the permanent handover occurred on 5 July 1945. In the meantime, part of the German population had returned, believing it might become part of the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and the Soviet authorities had already appointed the German Communists Erich Spiegel and Erich Wiesner as mayors. Stettin is located mostly west of the Oder river, which was expected to become Poland’s new western border, placing Stettin in East Germany. This would have been in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allied Powers, which envisaged the new border to be in “a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Swinemünde, and thence along the Oder River[…]”. Because of the returnees, the German population of the town swelled to 84,000. The mortality rate was at 20%, primarily due to starvation. However, Stettin and the mouth of the Oder River became Polish on 5 July 1945.
Stettin was transformed from a German into a Polish city as it was renamed Szczecin. With the expulsion of the German population, the Poles expelled from the East arrived. Settlers from Central Poland made up about 70% of Szczecin’s new population. In addition to Poles, Ukrainians from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union settled there. In 1945 and 1946 the city was the starting point of the northern route used by the Jewish underground organisation Brichah to channel Jewish displaced persons from Central and Eastern Europe to the American occupation zone.
Szczecin became a major Polish industrial centre and an important seaport (particularly for Silesian coal) for Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. Cultural expansion was accompanied by a campaign resulting in the “removal of all German traces”.
The city witnessed anti-communist revolts in 1970. The introduction of martial law in December 1981 met with a strike by the dockworkers of Szczecin shipyard, joined by other factories and workplaces in a general strike. All these were suppressed by the authorities. Pope John Paul II visited the city on 11 June 1987. Another wave of strikes in Szczecin broke out in 1988 and 1989, which eventually led to the Round Table Agreement and first semi-free elections in Poland.
Architecture. During the city’s reconstruction in the aftermath of World War II, the communist authorities of Poland wanted the city’s architecture to reflect an old Polish Piast era. Since no buildings from that time existed, instead Gothic as well as Renaissance buildings were picked as worthy of conservation. German traces were replaced by symbols of three main categories: Piasts, the martyrdom of Poles, and gratitude to the Soviet and Polish armies which had ended the Nazi German genocide of the Polish people. 38 million bricks from Szczecin became Poland’s largest brick supplier. The Old Town was rebuilt in the late 1990s, with new buildings, some of which were reconstructions of buildings destroyed in World War II.
Szczecin is the administrative and industrial centre of West Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the site of the University of Szczecin, Pomeranian Medical University, Maritime University, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin Art Academy, and the see of the Szczecin-Kamień Catholic Archdiocese. From 1999 onwards, Szczecin has served as the site of the headquarters of NATO’s Multinational Corps Northeast.
National Museum. Local art, many sculptures, some paintings, most by Slawomir Lewinski. Large African art exhbit, puppets, masks, wood sculpture. Free
Ducal Castle
Philharmonic Hall. Until 2014 the Philharmonic was located in the representative rooms of the Municipal Office. From September 14, 2014 the new seat of the Philharmonic is a building on 48 Małopolska Street, designed by Studio Barozzi Veiga from Barcelona.The music venue covers an area of 13,000 square meters and contains a main concert hall with 1000 seats for concert-goers as well as a smaller hall with a capacity for 200 spectators and a number of conference rooms. The characteristic ice-like shape of the philharmonic and its translucent ribbed-glass façade, which gives the building a white glow at night, has become a new icon of the city and has received numerous architectural awards such as First Prize in the prestigious Eurobuild Awards 2014 contest in the category of Architectural Design of the Year.
The foyer is impressive – all white cubes with a lovely spiral stairs.
A tour started when I was there. Even though it was all in Polish, I joined in. Climb the spiral stairs and enter the small theatre, an intimate square totally black space with wood floors and stage. Art gallery at the top (instruments mostly cellos and base fiddles). Main hall – almost square with gold tirangles on roof and walls, large balcony, 1 row seats on side, 3 rows behind orchestra.
Crooked Forest is a grove of oddly-shaped pine trees located outside Nowe Czarnowo near the town of Gryfino, West Pomerania, Poland.
This grove of 400 pines was planted around 1930, when its location was still within the German province of Pomerania. Each pine tree bends sharply to the North just above ground level, then curves back upright after a sideways excursion of three to nine feet (1–3 m). It is generally believed that some form of human tool or technique was used to make the trees grow this way, but the method and motive are not currently known. It has been speculated that the trees may have been deformed to create naturally curved timber for use in furniture or boat building. Others surmise that a snowstorm could have knocked the trees like this, but to date nobody knows what happened to the pine trees.
NOMAD MANIA Poland – Pomerania, Westpomerania (Gdańsk, Szczecin)
World Heritage Sites: Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork
Sights: Crooked Forest
Islands
Usedom
Wolin
Borders
Germany-Poland
Poland (sea border/port)
Poland-Russia
XL: Mierzeja Helska
Villages and Small Towns
Chojnice
Gniew
Kwidzyn
Łeba
Museums: Kołobrzeg: Museum of Polish Arms
Castles, Palaces, Forts:
Malbork: Malbork Castle
Słupsk Castle (Museum of Central Pomerania in Słupsk )
Religious Temples: Pelpin: Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption
World of Nature: Słowiński (Sight)
Festivals
Juwenalia
Open’er Festival, Gdynia
Plötzlich Am Meer
Sunrise, Kolobrzeg
Botanical Gardens: Gołubie Botanical Garden
Lighthouses
Gąski
Kołobrzeg Lighthouse
Świnoujście Lighthouse
Beaches
Jurata Beach
Krynica Morska Beach
Open-Air Museums: Kluki: Museum of the Slovinian Village
Railway Museums: Kościerzyna: Railway Museum Kościerzyna
The Dark Side: Borne Sulinowo former Soviet base (ghost town)
European Cities
KOSZALIN
STARGARD
SLUPSK
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Słupsk Castle (Museum of Central Pomerania in Słupsk ) new
GDANSK (Tri city) World Cities and Popular Towns
Tentative WHS: Gdansk – Town of Memory and Freedom (04/11/2005)
Islands: Islands of Gdansk
Airports: Gdansk (GDN)
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars: Gdańsk trams
Museums:
European Solidarity Centre
History Museum of the City of Gdansk (Gdansk Town Hall)
Museum of the Second World War
National Museum
Emigration Museum
House Museums/Plantations: Uphagen’s House
Castles, Palaces, Forts:
Abbot’s Palace (Oliwa)
Wisłoujście Fortress
Religious Temples: St. Mary’s Church
Malls/Department Stores: Gdańsk: Galeria Bałtycka
Markets: Gdańsk: Hala Targowa Kupców Dominikańskich
Monuments
Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970
Westerplatte
Zoos: Gdańsk: Oliwa Zoo
Maritime/Ship Museums: Gdansk: National Maritime Museum / SS Sołdek
Modern Architecture Buildings: Sopot: Crooked House
Beaches: Sopot Beach – Sopot Beach, Crooked House and Landscape
GDYNIA
Museums: Emigration Museum
Aquariums: Gdynia: Gdynia Aquarium
Planetariums: Gdynia Planetarium
Maritime/Ship Museums
Gdynia: Dar Pomorza
Gdynia: ORP Błyskawica
Vehicle Museums: Gdynia: Motor Museum.
SZCZCIN World Cities and Popular Towns
Airports: Szczecin (SZZ)
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars: Szceczin Trams
Museums:
Museum of Technology and Transportation
National Museum
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Ducal Castle
Modern Architecture Buildings: Szczecin: Philharmonic Hall