Gdansk is situated on the coast of the Gdansk Bay, a part of the Baltic Sea enclosed in the north by the Hel peninsula. While the Vistula River has no distinct delta, it has formed several branches reaching the sea. One of them is the Motlawa, upon which the city is located. The granaries, houses, cranes and hotels on the islands of the Motlawa make it a very picturesque place to visit.

Gdansk has close links with Sopot (a popular spa resort) and Gdynia (an important seaport), and together they form a conurbation known as the Tricity, surrounded by the Tricity Landscape Park. All three lie in the Pomerania region, an attractive summer holiday destination where visitors from both Poland and abroad people the beaches in summer. Pomerania is marked by its small sandy hills wooded with pines, while Gdansk itself lies on a coastal plain. The Kaszuby region (Kashubia) is not far to the south, noted for its specific folk culture and its own language.

Gdansk's past has several characteristic features: a long tradition of being a free city, the multinational mix of Polish and German cultures and close relations with Western Europe as one of the main ports of the Baltic region. The first records of this town date back to 997, when St. Adalbert, the bishop of Prague, visited it as part of his Christian mission in Pomerania. Gdansk, originally ruled by the dukes of Pomerania, was soon settled by Germans. From the 14th the town was occupied by the... ( più >>)