Glorious Gdansk Poland's great lost city 1,000-year history with warring kings

Glorious Gdansk Poland's great lost city  1,000-year history with warring kings

It has it all - a tumultuous 1,000-year history with warring kings and Teutonic Knights, some superb buildings and key Baltic's best sandy beaches on its doorstep.

In the 16th Century, Gdansk, part of a Hanseatic League, essentially the most powerful trading clubs in Europe, was 'the biggest, the mightiest too most stubborn city in Poland'.

Four centuries later, it was again mighty and celebrated throughout Europe. In June 1989, non-communists waiting in the election for the first time swept to victory.

Solidarity, the independent trade union formed in the Gdansk shipyards with Lech Walesa since it's charismatic leader, helped ignite the spark that led to the defeat of Soviet rule.

Visit Gdansk now, as it climbs the league of must-see European cities, and you'll find the buzz of a cheerful cafe culture along its famous thoroughfare, the traffic-free Royal Way that runs from the Golden Gate in town, through the main square to the Green Gate at the riverside.

The Hanseatic merchants who built many of the elegant houses were as cultured as they were rich. These beautiful buildings, ranging in color from dark green to dull red, from burnt orange to gleaming white and gold, astonish and delight the unaccustomed Western European eye - a splendid sight in the sunlight.

British merchants and traders were among those who lived in and visited this cosmopolitan city during its heyday as a major Baltic port. But by the mid-20th Century the glory days were long gone and much of the city lay in smoldering ruins.

No evidence of this turbulent past remains in the handsome Long Market, the main square where grandees once lived and executions took place. The magnificent houses, the bronze fountain of Neptune, the lavishly decorated guildhall, the picture-sellers and antique shops, the restaurants with their stripy umbrellas, the strolling visitors and busy locals present a happy and relaxed picture. But all is not as it seems.

Some 60 years ago, when work began on post-war reconstruction, Gdansk was in ruins. Black-and-white photographs at the Golden Gate and in the town's History Museum are graphic reminders of the devastation.