Gdańsk —
Gdansk is a city whose history unfolds at the meeting point of land and water, faith and trade, autonomy and allegiance. Its earliest recorded mention dates to the year 997, when the missionary Wojciech—later canonized as Saint Adalbert—passed through the settlement at the mouth of the Motława River. In an account written by the monk Jan Kanapariusz appears the name urbs Gydannyzc, marking the first written trace of the city. From its beginnings, Gdansk existed not in isolation but in circulation: of people, beliefs, and goods.
By the late tenth century, a fortified settlement and port complex had taken shape. Slavic inhabitants lived alongside merchants and craftsmen arriving from the west, forming a city structured by coexistence rather than uniformity. Under the rule of the Pomeranian dukes, and later through the granting of Lübeck city rights, Gdansk developed as a self-governing urban organism. Political transitions—alliances, transfers of sovereignty, and violent ruptures—left deep marks, none more enduring than the events of 1308, when the city fell under the control of the Teutonic Order after a massacre remembered simply as the “Slaughter of Gdansk.”
Yet domination did not halt development. Infrastructure such as the Radunia Canal and the Great Mill, still standing today, emerged during this period. As a member of the Hanseatic League from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, Gdansk became a principal port of Northern Europe, guarding what was often described as the granary of the Hanse. The city learned early how to balance economic pragmatism with political resistance. After the defeat of the Teutonic Order and the incorporation of Gdansk into the Polish Crown in 1454, the city received extensive privileges, including the “Great Privilege” of 1457, which secured its autonomy and prosperity. The royal crown placed above the city’s coat of arms remains a visible record of that settlement.
The Reformation reshaped Gdansk’s spiritual landscape in the sixteenth century. Protestant in character yet persistent in its pursuit of tolerance, the city became a refuge for religious minorities—Dutch Mennonites, Scots, Huguenots, and Jews—further reinforcing its cosmopolitan character. Often criticized for its independence and resistance to royal authority, Gdansk nonetheless demonstrated loyalty when threatened, defending the Polish crown during conflicts with Sweden and later during the siege of 1734.
The modern era brought decline and upheaval. Prussian annexation following the partitions of Poland, the brief episode of the Napoleonic Free City, and decades of economic crisis diminished the city’s standing. After the First World War, Gdansk again became a Free City under the supervision of the League of Nations—a fragile arrangement that collapsed amid the rise of fascism. The first shots of the Second World War, fired at Westerplatte in September 1939, once more placed Gdańsk at the threshold of European catastrophe. By 1945, the city lay largely in ruins.
Reconstruction followed destruction. Architects, conservators, and artists undertook the task of rebuilding not as replication, but as interpretation. In the postwar decades, Gdansk emerged as a symbol of resistance and civic courage. The protests of December 1970 and the formation of the Solidarity movement in August 1980 inscribed the city into the political history of Europe once again. The agreements signed at the Gdansk Shipyard marked the beginning of the end of the postwar order on the continent.
Today’s Gdansk continues to build its identity with an acute awareness of its past. Long open to the world, European in temperament and scale, the city carries its motto—Nec temere, nec timide (“without fear, but with caution”)—not as ornament, but as instruction. This postcard series records Gdansk not as a spectacle, but as a city shaped by exchange, endurance, and the careful maintenance of memory.
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