A tourist attraction that you should undoubtedly see in Gdańsk is Neptune’s Fountain. Neptune, the Roman god of the sea and sailors, is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable symbols of Gdańsk. Located at the heart of Long Market, the seventeenth-century fountain with a bronze statue of a god wielding a trident, surrounded by legendary seahorses, mermaids, tritons, pelicans, swans and other sea creatures, is a testimony to the fascination of ancient burghers with the culture of Antiquity. The mythical ruler of the sea was a symbol that manifested the city’s maritime and port character. Gdańsk, living from and owing its prosperity to sea trade, entrusted itself in the protection of this deity by the symbolic raise of Neptune’s fountain. And although the influence of Christianity was still overwhelming in the customs of the Renaissance, it must have already given way to some extent by accepting the presence of references to purely pagan Hellenistic myths in the cultural space. Ancient symbolism became more and more fashionable, and Neptune began to be a popular motif in bourgeois art and architecture – his image was, among others, placed on many Gdańsk tenement houses. There is a place in Gdańsk where there are three of his representations. Standing at Long Market, at the exit of Kuśnierska Street, there is both Neptune’s fountain and turning to its right, another figure, standing at the top of the building at the exact end of the axis of Kuśnierska Street (unfortunately, currently deprived of a trident). The third Neptune can be seen by looking away to the opposite side – it is located opposite to the Market Square, at the top of the second tenement house counting from Ławnicza Street.
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