a city and port in Poland, on the coast of the Gulf of Gdańsk, near the mouth of the Vistula.
Gdańsk and the cities of Gdynia and Sopot, which are connected by a highway, form a conurbation—the so-called Trojmiasto (Tri-city). Gdansk is the administrative center of Gdańsk Województwo and has a population of 370,000 (1969). The freight turnover of the Gdańsk port reaches 9 million tons a year. Gdansk is mainly a port for mass freights: coal, sulfur, and lumber materials are exported, and metallic ores and phosphates are imported. The main branches of industry, which in 1970 employed about 80,000 workers, are machine building, especially shipbuilding (the V. I. Lenin Gdańsk Shipyard accounts for about half of the country’s total capacity), and electrical engineering. Other important industries include chemicals (fertilizers, lacquers, and paints), food-processing, and clothing. Gdańsk is an important cultural center. It has a university, as well as polytechnical, pedagogical, medical, and naval institutes, and scientific institutions and societies. The city has opera and drama theaters. Gdańsk is located between the sea and the steep wooded slope of a moraine elevation, the Kaszub lakeland. The center of the city, with its reconstructed medieval quarter, is 6 km from the sea, and the harbor is at the confluence of the Motlawa and the Dead Vistula.
IU. V. ILINICH
Among the city’s architectural monuments are the remains of brick fortifications with towers from the 14th and 15th centuries. Gothic structures include the main town hall (1378-1492; rebuilt in the 16th century), the Church of the Virgin Mary (1343-1502), the Church of St. Catherine (from the early 13th century to the 15th), the Church of the Holy Trinity (1420-1514), and other churches, as well as the Artus Hall (14th century; rebuilt in 1476-81; the facade rebuilt in the Renaissance style in 1616-17). Renaissance and mannerist buildings include the Palace of the Polish Kings (1563-68), the arsenal (1602-05), the Golden House (1609-17), and the house of the abbots of the Pelplin Monastery (1612). There are also a number of baroque churches, including the Church of the Savior (1695-97) and the Jesuit church, as well as baroque residences.
The reconstruction of important architectural monuments destroyed in World War II began in 1946. The unified urban complex of Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia is being built up, and many tower-like buildings of from ten to 30 stories are under construction in Wrzeszcz, Oliwa, and other sections.
Archaeological excavations have established that a Slavic settlement existed on the site of Gdańsk as early as the middle of the first millennium. Gdańsk is mentioned in written sources for the first time in 997. From the tenth century to the 13th Gdańsk was the center of the East Pomeranian Duchy, together with which it was seized by the Teutonic Order in 1308. In 1454, after an uprising of the people of the city, it was freed from the rule of the Order and reunited with Poland by the Peace of Toruń (1466). From the 15th century to the 17th Gdańsk was the major center of Polish foreign trade. In 1656 it was besieged by Swedish troops. In 1793 it was captured by Prussia and remained under German rule until 1918, receiving the name of Danzig. By the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 it was made the Free City of Danzig under the administration of the League of Nations. On Sept. 1, 1939, fascist Germany, having attacked Poland, captured the city. On Mar. 30, 1945, it was liberated by the Soviet Army.
A. L. MONGAIT and I. S. MILLER