The Best Places in Gdansk to Visit for the History Buff

One part of the Polish Maritime Museum, this handsome brick and timber structure has kept watch over the Gdansk waterside since the 1400s. It was built during the booming years when the city was an important trading post in the Hanseatic League, intended as a cargo loader for the thousands of vessels passing in from the Baltic, and as a point of defence for the city. Unfortunately, near total destruction in WWII meant the building had to undergo hefty rebuilding, which has been done to retain the original medieval features: the overhanging apses, the interior wooden treads, and the administration rooms for the port.

Arguably the most famous of all the merchant’s guilds that dot the erstwhile port towns of the Hanseatic League (think Riga, Magdeburg et al), this handsome building still stands tall in the very heart of the Gdansk Old Town. It was inaugurated way back in the early 1300s, intended to provide a place for the well-to-do fraternities of the city’s trading families to meet, mingle and even influence the political affairs of the day. Inside, it’s easy to imagine rich amber and cloth tycoons chin wagging between the Gothic pillars and elaborate furnishings, making it the perfect pitstop to feel the medieval pulse of Gdansk. Another, similar structure can be seen just down the road at the so-called Golden House.