The Great Mill

This particular part of Gdansk architecture hold special place in my heart. Back in '90 I earned my first money, a lot of money (according to me back then :) this is where I spend it. Back then it was the fist shopping mall in Gdansk, if you even can call it that. It was a building filled with shops so I guess it meets the criteria. But even then it was so much more than that.

It is a beautiful building, it really is. I might be my fondness of it, but I really, really like that building :) The funny thing is, that I didn't even realise what history this building holds until now. And let me tell you, there is a history.

The mill was built in 1349 by Teutonic Order. The mill is placed on man-made island. The mill was used for milling rye, wheat and also barley and oats. At its best it help 18 mill wheels. The mill was a big deal, it generated income that apparently was worth fighting for. At first opportunity Gdansk city jumped to be the owner of the mill.

There is a nice part on the side of the mill and at the back of the mill there is a restaurant, which looks nice from outside, but I never been there so cannot comment on menu :)

Also there is a internet bench there, which stream live images, so when you sit there make sure your friends are watching :)

Overall, I love this building ( I think it's kind of obvious :). In the inside you can see reminiscence of the old mill.

Which you have to go inside to see. Oh, yeah :)

The Neptune Fountain

The Neptune Fountain

Probably the most known fountain statue in TriCity and symbol of Gdansk. So, why do I write about it since it is so famous that every tourist knows to stop by it anyway? The answer is quite simple. The fact that it is famous doesn't mean that people know about it.

The Neptune Fountain with Town Hall in background

Let's start at the beginning then. In 1549 first fountain appeared on Long Market (some claim it was simple wooden water jet and calling it 'a fountain' is overstatement:). The "fountain" was placed more to the east from the present one.

The fountain, view from the back

However soon enough the stewards of the city grew tired of the litter water jet in the centre of the city. All the more so as they were able to see greater structures around the world. Naturally they decided that Gdansk deserved a fountain that could proudly represent Gdansk and its residents (that was in 1606).

View of the Neptune and Long street

Abraham van den Blocke was hired for the work (I start to feel like this guy built half of Gdansk!). New place was carefully chosen. It was decided that statue crowning the fountain should be Neptune - the god of freshwater and the sea in roman religion. New fountain was to be faced in direction of apartment houses across the Artus Court. The head of Neptune was to be bowed in respect of kings and queens that resided in said apartment houses when visiting Gdansk. Also the Neptune Fountain is in the axis of the entrance to the Artus Court and the axis of Long Street and Green Gate.

Statues around basin look up to Neptune

It took a long time to finish the fountain. Not only the construction problems, but also the war with Sweden delayed the works. However despite the obstacles the work was completed in 1633. The fountain was created by Abraham van the Blocke, however the statue was of Peter Husen work. Surprisingly the first glimpse at the statue came way before revealing date, thanks to Izaak van den Blocke (brother of Abraham), who decided to paint Artus Court with soon-to-be Neptune Fountain in front of it. I haven't seen the painting myself, but if you like to see it, it is on the ceiling of Red Hall in Town Hall.

Details on the stem

Very advanced solutions were put in place in order to have the fountain work. There was a container build at the attic of Artus Court, with pipes running down the building and under the pavement right to the fountain. Every time that the Neptune Fountain was scheduled to work the container was filled with water (read: people were carrying water up to the attic in buckets). That is probably the reason why the fountain only worked only three times a week (Sundays between 11 - 12, Tuesday and Thursday between 12 - 13) between Easter and 29th of September of every year. I guess there was no coincidence that running time was set for an hour, as the container in the attic of Artus Court has a capacity that allowed fountain to work continuously for an hour. Imagine the persistence: the Neptune Fountain was run this way for 200 years!! (that is until waterworks were built in Gdansk).

Neptune attacking Town Hall tower :)

During II WW the whole fountain was taken apart and hidden away. After the war piece were found in different locations, however some pieces never were found: trident, finn of sea bass and stem, which is rumoured to be sunk in one of Oliwa's lakes.

Some parts of the fountain were hidden in its basin during the war

Surprisingly the fin of the sea bass (which loads of people mistake for a leaf) that covers private parts of Neptune is the single most stolen piece of the fountain. Also, there is a small replica of Neptune (or this replica is the prototype of the statue) at a roof of 2 Long Street building. I didn't know that when I went today to take pictures, pity :)

Old postcard 

Gdańsk Główny - Railway Station

View of Gdansk Glowny

As weird as this might sound I will say it :I like railway stations. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that as a child I rarely travelled by train despite living by a train station. Well, it is hard to explain why I like train stations, I am not a train fan after all. I think it has to do with ambience of each train station. Luckily for me TriCity has one of the prettier railway stations in Poland :)

Front of the main station in Gdansk

Lets start our railway station journey with Gdansk Glowny railway station. I always knew that the building is old and quite well known. But I was surprised at some things I read about the history of not only the building, but main train station of Gdansk.

Front of the Train Station

As I read the first train station of Gdansk was maybe not in totally different place, but in a bit of a distance from present station. To give you some kind of idea of the distance: it takes around 10 minutes drive from existing station to the first ever train station, that doesn't exist anymore. The fist railway station was build in Gdansk in 1852 and it was called "Dworzec Brama Nizinna" or "Leegetor Bahnhof", which could be translated to "Lower Gate Train Station".

Dworzec Glowny Gdansk :)

In 1967 on the ground of todays main station, a small station called Highland Gate Station was open (apparently the station was accessible from one side only, as there was still moat that was a part of early modern period fortification of Gdansk). However in 1894 it was decided to expand the railway station, therefore the works have begun by buring the moat and demolishing of western bastions. The style of the building is apparently Gdansk renaissance. I didn't know that Gdansk had its own architectural style, but it is fine with me :)

Main window of main railway  station

The central building was to be called "Empfangsgebaude" which means reception building. Grand opening was scheduled on 30th of October 1900. When I think about the design of the building station and amenities planned, all of it seems to me so proper and even exotic.  Maybe it is just caused by my imagination, because when I read that reception hall with ticket office along with luggage storage, phone booths, police station, telegraph office and waiting rooms (separate for first and second class, and third and forth class) I imagine women walking in big dresses and carrying umbrellas with them, policeman bowing at the sight of women. And most importantly waiting rooms looking like luxury lounges rather than room filled with dirty benches with graffitti on them.

The tower of Railway station

I think that most impressive feature of the whole building (that of course I found out about now) is that the clock tower served as a water tower and clock tower, with electrically powered clock at the same time. Naturally nowadays the tower has sole purpose of being clock tower since all trains run on electricity.

Gdansk railway station, early 1900. source: http://gdansk.fotopolska.eu

Train station, early 1900, source: http://gdansk.fotopolska.eu

Shortly after the building work was completed, the whole area was transformed, hotels were being built practically overnight. The area became one of the most desired areas in whole of Gdansk. As I wanted to write that the train station was burned down after II WW and the original design will remain unknown, I managed to find few pictures of the building from early 1900. Therefore we know that replica of the building is very close to first one.

Train station from the back

Unfortunately close proximity of Hail Mountain prevented expansion of the railway station. I am not so much saddened by it, though :)

Tracks of railway station

Gdańsk in TOP-10

Just found out that Gdansk was named 9th top destination by Agoda.com, based on analysed customer reviews.


See for yourself: Where to find the best hotels


I say: Well done, and also, I know that few hotels are being built around Old Town, so next year I am waiting for spot in top 5. (that is if Agoda.com does the ranking every year :)