POLAND : GDANSK - Sightseeing
The city boasts many fine Hanseatic league
buildings. The St Mary's Church (Marienkirche/Bazylika Mariacka), a
municipal church built in Gdansk in the 15th century, is one of the
largest brick churches in the world.On the Motlawa river the museum ship
SS Soldek is anchored.
Gdansk is the starting point of the EuroVelo 9 cycle route which
continues southward through Poland, then onto the Czech Republic,
Austria, and Slovenia before it finally ends on the Adriatic Sea at Pula
in Croatia.
Lying right outside the Roads to Freedom exhibition the monument of the
fallen shipyard workers was unveiled in 1980 to commemorate the events
of 1970 when 44 people died during street riotsprotesting against the
communist regime. The crosses symbolise the three workers who were
killed outside the shipyard gates, while the anchors represent faith and
hope.
The erection of the monument was one of the key demands during the 1980
strikes, and the monument is marked by a poignant inscription by Czeslaw
Milosz: 'You who have harmed simple man, mocking him with your laughter,
you kill him, someone else will be born, and your deeds and words will
be written down'.
Surrounding the monument are several memorials andplaques and dedicated
to victims of thetotalitarianism. King Jan Sobieski III statue. A large
bronze statue built in 1897 in memory of the Polish king who reigned in
the 17th century and famously defeated the Turks at the gates of Vienna;
thereby saving Europe from the Ottoman hordes. Originally displayed in
Lviv, the monument was movedto Warsaw in 1950 before finally being
shifted to Gdansk in 1965. During martial law the monument became the
starting point for several demonstrations and marches.