The name Artus Manor comes from the Latinised form of the name of King Arthur. The legend of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, popular at the end of the Middle Ages, has become an incentive for the cultivation of knightly traditions, not only by the nobles, but also by the rich Gdansk bourgeoisie who attempted to make themselves similar to the gentry. Another gathering of a similar... Continue reading

Dating back to 1520, a late-Gothic tenement house at Chlebnicka 14 Street, historically belonging to the Schlieff family, is recognised as one of the most beautiful bourgeois houses on Polish land erected in Gothic style. The architecture of the building reveals a clear influence of English Gothic, which is a truly exceptional phenomenon in a local context. The house features an awe-inspiring monumental glass facade, decorated with openwork stone detail... Continue reading

When visiting Gdańsk, be sure to visit the Gdańsk Main Railway Station (unless that is where you got off when you arrive), which is one of the prettiest in the country in terms of architectural value. Built in the Neo-Renaissance style at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it is a monument of the ‘Belle Epoque’ period, as several decades in European history were known until the outbreak... Continue reading

Since recently, on the side wall of the tenement at the corner of Węglarska and św. Ducha Streets in Gdańsk you can see a mural made in sgraffito technique depicting a fragment of the famous Buhse’s Plan, demonstrating the area of the Main Town. The prototype of the plan was drawn up by Daniel Buhse in 1863-1868. It served for administrative and judicial purposes as a cadastral plan. It was... Continue reading

In Gdańsk, there were two places historically where executions of criminals were carried out. The first of them was on the Gallows Mountain in Wrzeszcz, near today’s Traugutta and Sobieskiego Streets. As the name suggests there was a gallows, but it was not just a simple structure made of beams, but rather a whole stone building, equipped with a high platform with stairs, on which there stood four pillars supporting... Continue reading

One of the places worth seeing in Gdańsk is located at the Long Wharf, under the building of the Archaeological Museum next to St Mary’s Gate. It is a peculiar panopticum of stone statues, so-called ‘Prussian babas’. They originate from the Middle Ages and are a reminder of the forgotten pagan cults that occurred in the Prussia area, until the time of the conquest and Christianisation of these lands by... Continue reading

The enthusiasts of Shakespeare’s theatre and creativity should necessarily visit the Shakespeare Theatre in Gdańsk. Modern theatre has blossomed in Europe since the end of the 16th century. Born in Elizabethan England, it began to spread across the continent through migrant groups of English actors who, traveling from city to city, lived from exhibiting popular plays freely translated into local languages. In German countries these actors were called ‘Englische Comoedianten’.... Continue reading

Spending free time in Gdańsk, you will sooner or later reach St Mary’s Basilica. Walking from Szewska Street you will see the gate to St Mary’s Church decorated with a semicircular tympanum with an extraordinary medieval figural group, modelled on the architectural details of the thirteenth-century French cathedrals. In contrast to the stone cathedrals made in France, the Gdańsk churches have little outside decorations due to the fact that they... Continue reading

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... Continue reading