The Golden Gate of Gdansk

The Golden Gate of Gdansk

I have been to the Green Gate of Gdansk. So it is only natural that I decided it's time for another gate of Gdansk :) The Golden Gate of Gdansk.

Mighty Golden Gate

To be frank, I could have done both of them at same time as even at low pace it would take max 20 minutes to walk from one to the other.  I however am well known for not making things easy for myself, so I had to keep to my standards :)

golden age of Golden Gate :)

To be honest,  as a child I always confused these two gates. I could never remember which one is which.  Now, it just seems foolish to me, as they don't look alike at all. My only excuse can be that as child I was more interested in what was happening on the street.  The colorful displays and beautiful smells of sweets distracted me.

The Golden Gate, view from Long Street

Lets start by saying that Golden Gate isn't really made of gold (no surprise there, right? :) and that wasn't it's name to start with. The gate marks the beginning of Long Street, and is a part of so-called "Royal Route". The original name of the gate was "Long-street Gate" or if you prefer Langgasser Tor (original German name). The current name apparently has absolutely nothing to do with the history of the gate, somebody probably called the gate golden couple of centuries ago, and it stuck :).

View on the Town Hall through the Golden Gate

The gate was built in 1612 by Abraham van den Block as a replacement of a Gothic gate that was there before (I'm sorry, no kings of queens here). Alike the Green Gate, the Golden Gate's style is Netherlands Mannerism. Unlike the Green Gate, it only has three arcades (one main and two side once).

The Golden Gate after II WW

Without a doubt in my mind my favorite part of the gate are decorations, that I never paid any attention until now. As it turns out there are 8 statues on top of the building, 4 on each side (but that I am sure you can see :). The statues on the west side of the building (opposite of the Long Street) were supposed to symbolize the desires townspeople: Pax (Peace), Libertas (Liberty), Fortuna (Happiness), and Fame (Fame). On the opposite side of the building statues were representing civic virtues allegories: Concordia (Harmony), Iustitia (Righteousness), Pietas (Godliness) and Prudentia (Prudence).

Statues of the Golden Gate

Also I really like the message of inscriptions carved into the walls. The first one is in german: "ES MVSSE WOL GEHEN DENEN DIE DICH LIEBEN ES MVSSE FRIEDE SEIN INWENDIG IN DEINEN MAVREN VND GLVCK IN DEINEN PALASTEN". It's a quotation from bible and it translates to more - less : "Let thrive those who love you. May peace be in your walls, and prosperity within thy palaces".

Latin inscription on the Golden Gate

Second citation is in latin: "Concordia res publicæ parvæ crescunt - discordia magnæ concidunt".Which means: "With the consent small republics grow - with disagreements big fall". I can hardly imagine better quotation to be inscripted.