Home > Travel > National Park International >

Gdansk

Description: Gdańsk, also known as Danzig, its German name, and by several other names, is the sixth-largest city in Poland and ... more

Gdansk ... is Poland's principal seaport and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The city lies on the southern coast of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdynia and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the greater Gdańsk or the Tricity (Trójmiasto) with a population of over a million people. Gdańsk is, with a population of 458,053 (2006), the largest city in the province of Eastern Pomerania, and present region of Gdańsk Pomerania. To the West lies the Kashubian Tricity (Rumia, Reda, and Wejherowo), while Pruszcz Gdański is to the south.

Newest Review: ... and attracted by the newly developing maritime and shipbuilding industries. Post-war, Gdansk's main claim to fame was, indeed, its role in the events of the 1980, the creation of Solidarity and ultimately the fall of the communist regime in Poland ten years later. Modern Gdansk is a city of 500,000 people, usually regarded as a part of the Tri-City conurbation, being the largest and oldest ... more

... of the three (the other two are Sopot and Gdynia). It has several universities, music venues and theatres, thriving art and music scene and enough to see (especially with the surrounding areas) to easily occupy a visitor for at least a week. ==Sig...more

Read Reviews for Gdansk

Gdansk: Hansastadt Danzig (1801 words)
by - written on 30/09/09 (Very useful, 29 readings)
Rating:

Most British or American people who heard of Gdansk associate with Solidarity, Lech Walesa and shipyards: images of industrial grime, smoke-filled sky and communist-era concrete apartment blocks are a natural association. And while Gdansk has its own quota of concrete suburbs and several major industries, and the cranes of the shipyard are still visible if not exactly operational, the grim industrial image couldn't be further from the truth. The city is located in the north of Poland, at the mouth of the Vistula river and on the Baltic sea (in the Bay of Gdansk). ==A Bit of History== Gdansk (often known under its German name ... Read the complete review

Gadding about in Gdansk (2632 words)
by - written on 06/09/09 (Very useful, 52 readings)
Rating:

For the last week or so I have had my mother-in-law over from the UK. She has never visited Poland before and as it might be a while before she comes again I wanted to take her on a trip to a city outside of Warsaw. Krakow would probably have been a good choice but having spent many years living near the sea I thought Gdansk would be a better choice and somewhere she would enjoy. Ever since moving to Warsaw two years ago I have wanted to visit Gdansk mainly because of of its connections with Lech Walesa and Solidarity - a subject that has always been of great interest to me. What I didn't realise was that the city of Gdansk was also, like Warsaw, flattened in ... Read the complete review

Gdansk: Poland's northern gem (410 words)
by - written on 05/08/09 (Very useful, 14 readings)
Rating:

Whilst Gdynia is a transport hub for the coastline and the more businessy town of Trojmiasto (Three Cities) and Sopot is a playground of beaches, restaurants, cafes and pubs, it's Gdansk that remains my favourite of the three as it nicely combines a working port with a lovely old town. To most tourists Gdansk is probably known as the cradle of Solidarnosc (Soldarity Trade Union) that ultimately led to the downfall of communism in Poland in 1989. If not that, then perhaps as the Free State of Danzig, an autonomous republic heavily populated by Germans that existed between 1920 and 1939. Over the years Gdansk has been in the centre of a tug of war ... Read the complete review

Solidarnosc and a beautiful city (585 words)
by - written on 28/07/00 (Very useful, 112 readings)
Rating:

If you are like me and grew up in the 70s and 80s, then you probably have the same distorted view of Gdánsk as I did. I associated the place with huge ship-building plants and Solidarity. So when somebody suggested going to Gdánsk for a long weekend I was a bit dubious. We travelled over by car from Germany. The border crossing was a bit hairy as we didn't have the right car insurance papers. If you are going to Poland by car make sure you have a valid 'green card' insurance policy before you leave. It costs a lot more on the border and they won't let you into the country without one. We had booked into the 'Grand Hotel' in ... Read the complete review