Gdansk attractions include St. Mary’s Basilica, Ulica Dluga (Long Street), Dlugi Targ (Long Market), Green Gate, Gdansk, and the Maritime Museum of Gdansk.
St. Mary’s Church (bazylikamariacka.pl), located within one of the most beautiful streets in the city, Ulica Mariacka, is the world’s largest brick church, and the most popular tourist attraction in Gdansk.
You can climb up the stairs to the church’s roof observation platform, from where you’ll have panoramic views over the city.
The church was built in the 15th century, and it contains space for up to 25,000 people.
Highlights within the St. Mary’s Church include a number of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque paintings.
The most famous of these paintings is the “Last Judgment“, by Flemish painter Hans Memling.
Ulica Dluga (Long Street), meanwhile, is the city’s main pedestrian street, along which you can find a large number of the city’s most important buildings — such as the Old City Hall of Gdansk (Ratusz Glównego Miasta) — mostly from the 17th century and the city’s golden age as part of the Hanseatic League.
Both ends of the street are adorned with magnificent city gates.
The city district, in which Ulica Dluga is located, is often referred to as the Royal Way, due to its historical usage as a route through the city by visiting foreign kings.
As part of the Royal Way, there is Dlugi Targ (Long Market), from where you’ll find several main tourist attractions in Gdansk, such as a statue of Neptune and the Golden House.
Of these, the Neptune statue, located in the middle of Dlugi Targ, is the most famous landmarks and symbols of Gdansk, similarly to how Manneken Pis symbolizes Brussels.
This bronze statue of an ancient Roman god of the seas was built in1549, and it was made into a fountain in 1633.
Gdansk attractions also include Green Gate, one of the oldest city gates in Gdansk, built from 1564-1568.
Today, the gate functions as a section of the National Museum of Gdansk, housing temporary exhibitions, meetings, conferences, and presentations.
The building was also used as a residential palace by the former Polish President Lech Walesa.
Finally, Gdansk Maritime Museum (www.cmm.pl) is the largest museum of its kind in Poland, documenting the Polish maritime traditions and history.
The museum’s main buildings are located along Motlawa River, and include a number of typical historic port buildings, on each side of the river.
Highlights in the museum include, for example, museum steamship “Soldek” as well as a unique, well-preserved Medieval port crane.