Europe travel: The must-visit city you’ve probably never heard of

Neptune's Fountain, in Gdansk, Poland. Photo / 123rf

I almost didn’t visit Gdansk. Actually I’ll confess, I’d never even heard of it. But this pretty Polish portside town is more than worth your time, crammed with visitor-friendly attractions and amazing history. On Poland’s Baltic coast, its colourful buildings and canalside location belie a dark and fascinating past. Here are 10 reasons you shouldn’t miss it.

1 You might know it already - as Danzig

The German name for Gdansk is Danzig. Thanks to its location and access to the Baltic Sea, Gdansk has been at the centre of a territorial tug-of-war between Poland, Prussia, Germany and more for centuries. A city-state known as the Free City of Danzig pre-World War II, the city became Gdansk overnight at the end of the war.

2 It was where the first fighting of WWII broke out

Gdansk was the site of first outbreak of World War II. On Sept 1, 1939, the Germans invaded Poland, and the Battle of Westerplatte, which took place in the harbour of Gdansk, marked the war’s first outbreak of fighting. The city was annexed by the Germans soon after.

A back street of Gdansk, Poland, with St Mary's in the background. Photo / 123rf

3 It may look old, but it's really quite new

Most of Gdansk is constructed in the Dutch Renaissance style – picture the 17th century merchants’ houses that line the canals of Amsterdam, and you’ll have an idea. But what you see here is mostly a reconstruction. In 1945, the Red Army arrived and the siege of Danzig was launched against the occupying Nazis. By the end of the siege, 90 per cent of the city centre had been left in ruins – the fires were said to burn for a month afterwards. Instead of rebuilding in a contemporary style, the newly renamed Gdansk chose to emphasise its historic ties to the Netherlands, and move away from its German history, by rebuilding itself in this 400-year-old architectural style. The rebuild started in 1948 and took until the mid-1960s, so what looks like a historic city is almost brand new.

4 But one important feature survived: Neptune's Fountain

In the centre of the Długi Targ (the city’s central and historic Long Market), Neptune’s Fountain was created in the 1630s, one of very few important monuments in Gdansk to survive the war. This was no fluke – the Nazis dismantled and hid the statue (after getting rid of the iconic fence of Polish eagles that surrounded the fountain). After the war, the eagles were reinstated, and Neptune was returned to his home in Gdansk.

Neptune's Fountain, in Gdansk, Poland. Photo / 123rf

5 It's the most bike-friendly town in Poland

With more than 600km of cycle paths, Gdansk is known as the cycling capital of Poland. You’ll find bike-friendly lanes through the central city, but also miles out into the countryside, which is almost perfectly flat. Whether you hire a bike for a tour of the old town, or strike out on your own, Gdansk’s network of bike lanes will take you wherever you want to go – you can even take your bike on the local trains, and ride forest trails to the surrounding towns.

6 Daniel Fahrenheit was born here

Fahrenheit, a 17th physicist, invented the mercury thermometer and the first universal temperature scale, the Fahrenheit scale. This remained the world standard from the 1600s until the 1970s, when most of us switched to Celsius. Fahrenheit is buried in The Hague, but you can visit the Fahrenheit Monument, a working replica of a thermometer he built in 1752, in Gdansk’s Long Market, as well as the (reconstructed) house he was born in just a block away.

7 It has a Shakespearean centre and festival, and King Charles III is its patron

Gdansk was an important stop for travelling theatre actors in the 17th century. In 1991, a Shakespearean foundation was established with the support of the now-King Charles, and in 2014 the Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre was opened on the site of a Renaissance theatre that once hosted companies from across Europe. An international Shakespeare festival is hosted here every August.

Aerial view of the Old Town of Gdansk on sunset, Poland. Photo / 123rf

8 Europe’s largest red brick church is here - and it’s really, really big

St Mary’s, or the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, offers some of the best views of Gdansk – if you can handle the 400 steps up the tower to the lookout point. St Mary’s is a truly enormous church – it stands 78m high, and there is room inside for 25,000 people. Building began in 1345 and was completed in 1502, it was severely damaged in 1945 - and reconstruction began soon after and is ongoing.

9 And a clock so beautiful, its creator was ordered to be blinded

Okay, this one is a legend, but the clock is real and you can visit it. Hans Duringer’s astronomical clock, inside St Mary’s, was built in the late 1400s. It stands 14m tall, and tracks the time, the date, and the position of the planets. Duringer is said to have been blinded so that he could never build another - he actually went on to build other astronomical clocks, but let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good (and terribly gory) story.

10 Getting there is easy

Although Gdansk is a small inland town, visiting is simple. Gdansk is a popular cruising port - I visited as part of a 12-day itinerary with Regent Seven Seas Cruises, aboard the Seven Seas Splendor, and many other cruise ships also stop there. Ships dock at the local port, and from there it is a 15-minute drive on a coach into town. Coaches will drop you outside the old city, so you can walk across the picturesque canal and into town.

CHECKLIST: GDANSK

DETAILS

Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Northern Europe itineraries on Splendor sail from April to September. For more information, go to rssc.com