When you visit the city of Gdańsk in Poland today, the city greets you with warmth and hospitality. People are relaxed and friendly. You easily find food and drink and things to see and do all over the city. You pay with credit card almost everywhere, signs are available in English and Polish and you easily find someone who speaks English if you need help.
But Gdańsk is also one of those cities that have many names, indication of an uneasy past. Which for someone as interested in history as I am makes it a perfect place to visit.
Situated where the Vistula river runs out into the Baltic Sea in a flood delta, Gdańsk is an important trade hub and has been for a millennium. The city was part of the Hanseatic League, a network of cities regulating the trade through the Baltic Sea.
Together with its sister cities to the north and west, the area receives more than 3 million tourists per year and is home to 1.5 million residents. Sopot is a beach resort with wide sandy beaches at the south eastern corner of the Baltic Sea.
Where World War II began
The German name for Gdańsk is Danzig. Together with Koeningsberg further east (today Kaliningrad), these cities had large German speaking populations. World War II changed that.
Between the First and the Second World War, Gdansk was the Free City of Danzig under the protection of League of Nations, the predecessor to United Nations.
When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, the first battle was fought at Westerplatte in Gdańsk at the very edge of the sea. Around 200 Polish soldiers held out for seven days against more than 3000 German marines and infantry.
During the war, Germans built submarines at the shipyards in Gdańsk. After the war, Gdańsk became part of the Polish People's Republic, the communist state created by Stalin.
City of Solidarity
The Imperial German shipyards of Danzig became the Gdańsk Shipyard and later the Lenin Shipyard. Workplace for 17,000, it built commercial and military vessels. Strikes at the factory in August 1980 led to creation of Solidarity, a trade union and political movement that played an important part in the Fall of Communism in 1989.
The European Solidarity Centre tells the story of the strike, the events leading up to the strike, the aftermath and how this eventually led to the creation of the democratic Poland we know today.
Heroes or villains, you can make up your own mind. Shipyard Electrician Lech Wałęsa, one of the strike leaders, won the Nobel Peace Prize and eventually became Polish President. But only for one period, then he too experienced the turning of the Wheel of Fortune.
The role of religion and the significance of John Paul II, the Polish Pope. The women who played key roles in the events — in fact the direct trigger for the strike was the dismissal of the political active crane operator Anna Walentynowicz.
Why did the strike not end in bloodshed and Soviet tanks in the streets as in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Budapest in 1956? Did Defence Minister turned Dictator General Jaruzelski save his country from Warsaw Pact intervention? Or did he only postpone the inevitable change? Video clips with General Jaruzelski show a political leader out of touch with the dreams and hopes of new generations.
Contemporary history is complicated, rich with nuance. Examining the facts presented and drawing your own conclusions is how it should be told. The European Solidarity Centre does this and is well worth a visit.
Located next to the shipyard area that is partially open to the public, you can also explore the industrial area.
Capital of Amber
Gdańsk competes with Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) as the historical Capital of Amber. The sandy beaches of the nearby Baltic Coast is rich in amber, collected since ancient times. Skilled craftsmen have turned the soft stone into jewellery and precious remedies for all things malign. Most famous is perhaps the Amber Room, gifted by the Prussian King Frederick William I to his ally Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. A replica is now on display in St Petersburg while the original disappeared near the end of World War II.
The Museum of Amber situated in the carefully restored historical water mill tells the story of amber and its significance to the city. The museum presents a wide selection both of natural lumps and inclusions as well as objects of arts incorporating the material. The amber found in the Baltic Sea is resin of trees that grew 30-60 million years ago.
I also enjoyed the part of the exhibition that tells of historical use of amber in folk medicine. Why not clean a plague-ridden house by burning amber?
City of many facades
But perhaps the greatest attraction of Gdańsk is its historical old town, carefully restored and preserved to let you walk along a 17th century street as you take in all the exquisitely decorated facades of the narrow city houses that compete for your attention.
The old town itself is flat but you can climb cranes, churches, and town halls to see the city from above.
We visited in August during the three week Dominican Market, a yearly recurring event since the 13th century. Shop stalls sell locally produced goods and food and drink from all over the world.
Staying at an Old Town hotel made it easy to explore the sights and tastes by foot and at different times of day. For a Scandinavian wallet, prices are quite reasonable, making it easy to recommend Gdańsk as a city break destination.
But most of all Gdańsk is a testimony that after times hardship — even if it takes generations — a city of conflict can once again become a city of peace and prosperity.