Old Town Sights and History Guided Walking Tour Gdansk

The Golden Gate and Long Lane

The walk begins at the Golden Gate, built in the early 17th century in Dutch Mannerist style as the ceremonial entrance to the Main Town. Its facade carries statues symbolising the virtues a good city needed, such as peace, freedom, wealth and fame. Just outside stand the Upland Gate and the Prison Tower, the outer defences through which kings entered Gdańsk on their royal visits.

Through the gate opens Long Lane, Ulica Długa, the main street of the old merchant city. Tall, narrow townhouses with richly decorated gables line both sides, each once owned by a wealthy trading family. Your guide explains how almost all of them were reduced to rubble in 1945 and then painstakingly rebuilt from old drawings and photographs, which makes this Gdańsk Old Town tour a lesson in reconstruction as much as in history.

Long Market, Neptune Fountain and Artus Court

Long Lane widens into Long Market, Długi Targ, the showpiece square of Gdańsk and once its busiest marketplace. At its centre stands the bronze Neptune Fountain, cast in the 17th century as a symbol of the city's bond with the sea. Beside it rises Artus Court, the grand meeting hall of the merchant brotherhoods, with a facade crowded with statues and a famous tiled stove inside.

The tall spire of the Main Town Hall, topped by a gilded figure of a king, dominates the western end of the square. Here the guide describes how Gdańsk grew rich in the Hanseatic League, shipping Polish grain down the Vistula and across the Baltic. This square is the busiest part of any walk in Gdańsk, so it is best seen in the morning or late afternoon.

St. Mary's Basilica

Rising above the rooftops, St. Mary's Basilica is among the largest brick churches in the world, built over about a century and a half between 1343 and 1502. Its massive tower and bare brick walls give it the look of a fortress, while the bright, whitewashed interior holds a 15th-century astronomical clock and a richly carved high altar.

On this tour you see the basilica from the outside and hear its story; the interior and the tower climb have their own St. Mary's Basilica opening hours and tickets, which are not included. The tower offers one of the best panoramas of the city for those with energy left after the walk. Nearby Mariacka Street, with its stone terraces and amber workshops, is one of the most charming lanes in the Old Town.

Żuraw Crane and the Motława Riverfront

The Royal Route ends at the Green Gate, which opens onto the Motława River and the old harbour quays. A short walk along the water brings you to the Żuraw, a medieval port crane from the mid-15th century and a symbol of Gdańsk. Workers inside its huge wooden treadwheels lifted cargo onto ships and raised ship masts, making it one of the largest working cranes of medieval Europe.

Today the crane belongs to the National Maritime Museum, and the riverfront is lined with restored granaries, restaurants and boats. The view across the river to Granary Island shows how warehouses once stretched along the water. It is a fitting end to a Gdańsk walking tour, and a good starting point if you want to explore the riverside afterwards.

Gdańsk in the 20th Century: War and Solidarity

Gdańsk was the place where the Second World War began on 1 September 1939, when the first shots were fired at the Polish garrison on Westerplatte and at the Polish Post Office in the city. Your guide explains the city's unusual position between the wars as a Free City under League of Nations protection, and how the war left the Main Town almost entirely in ruins.

Four decades later, Gdańsk again changed the course of history. In 1980 shipyard workers went on strike and founded Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc, a movement that helped bring about the peaceful end of communism in Central Europe. These stories give real meaning to the streets you walk through on this tour.