Alternative routes, alleys, yards, paths between tenement houses or blocks of flats … This is how Local Guides – residents of Gdansk, lovers of the districts in which they live. Throughout the summer, they will take volunteers for free tours around the Monumental Painting Collection in Zaspa, Biskupia Gorka, Dolne Miasto, Nowy Port, Orunia, Oliwa and Sobieszewo Island. Guided tours take place several times a week. This year, due to the state of epidemic threat, entries through the form available on our website are mandatory.

  • Summer in the city is an opportunity to get to know it better, and sometimes to rediscover it as a tourist. Let’s use summer afternoons and weekends for micro-trips around Gdansk districts. Local Guides, that is neighborhood enthusiasts, local experts on the history and history of places with which their childhood and adult memories are associated, show takers along alternative routes of seven Gdansk districts, each walk is different, each story is told in an original way. No two trips are the same – says Barbara Sroka from the City Culture Institute.

Gdansk districts. Their stories and secrets

The housing estate in Zaspa-Mlyniec is one of the most famous estates in Europe. Not only because of its urban planning foundations or the history of the airport operating until 1974. There are large-format murals on the top walls of the blocks. 60 works form the Monumental Painting Collection in Zaspa, which can be visited with a guide every Tuesday and Thursday at 5.30 p.m. and on Saturdays at 1 p.m.

Biskupia Gorka is one of the few districts that escaped the destruction of the war. The style of urban development reflects the character of former Gdansk. Interesting architectural details, remains of gas street lighting, original window frames, unique staircases of pre-war tenement houses – all this makes a walk along the streets of Biskupia Gorka a journey through time. Walks around Biskupia Gorka take place on Mondays and Wednesdays at 5.30 p.m. and on Saturdays at 12 p.m.

Dolne Miasto changes every year. New buildings are being built or new tenement houses are being revitalised. The green areas of the Motlawa outlet let you relax in the heat or enjoy a picnic after bike rides. What did the district look like in the Middle Ages and why was it called Pigs’ Meadow? How did it change from a place where rich townspeople (including the Uphagen family) rested into a factories district: tobacco, alcohol, leather…? Walks around Dolne Miasto happen every Tuesday and Thursday at 5.30 p.m. and Sundays at 12 p.m.

In Nowy Port we will feel the Gdansk port atmosphere. The Martwa Wisla canal is accessed by container ships or cruise liners, which still speak at the Five Whistles Turn. The atmospheric tram depot and the nearby, no longer existing, Evangelical cemetery remind of the district’s past. There used to be a brewery here, now – grain elevators are still in operation. During our walks, we learn the history of the dockers’ strike, as well as stories about money changers and port “gulls”. A must-see is the historic lighthouse! Local Guides show you around Nowy Port on Wednesdays at 5.30 p.m. and Saturdays at 12 p.m.

Anecdotes about the “merry conductor”, Antoni Turzynski, who brightened the drives with his joyful poems, stories about the oldest hairdressing salon in Orunia, which interiors had original furniture, armchairs and mirrors, stories about the Baltic Mermaid and the legends of the Orunski Park, or memories about the iconic cinema “Kosmos”. Among other things, we can hear such stories from Local Guides in Orunia. Walks take place on Tuesdays at 5.30 p.m. and Saturdays at 12 p.m.

Oliwa is a beautiful and modern, yet noble old district of Gdansk, where nature and culture coexist in a magical way. Everywhere, in tenement houses, relics, on atmospheric streets, in the murmuring waters of the Oliwa stream, on high hills and in quiet valleys, a long and interesting history is written. Walk with Local Guides on the Way to Eternity, hear about the outstanding inhabitants. Let yourself be seduced by Ludolfina’s mood. Discover places of wonder and reflection. Walks around Oliwa take place on Wednesdays and Fridays at 5.30 p.m. and on Saturdays at 10 a.m.

March 31st, 1895 at 3.45 p.m., the president of the West Prussia province, Gustav von Gossler, officially opened the great work of hydrotechnical thought, which was the 7 km Vistula River Dyke. In this way, the third largest island of the Polish coast was created – Sobieszewo Island. An unusual and still mysterious place. In the interwar period there was a seaplane harbor here, in the 1950s a huge fin whale skull was fished in its vicinity, in 2004 – the world’s largest specimen of amber decorated with barnacles could be found there. In its area there are nature reserves: Mewia Lacha and Ptasi Raj. Local Guides take you on three routes: Gorki Wschodnie, Centrum Sobieszewo, Swibno and the surrounding area. Walks around the Sobieszewo Island take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5.30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m.

The City Culture Institute also invites you to walk around the Gdansk Shipyard along the routes of women and Gdansk Miniatures. Registration also via: www.ikm.gda.pl/zapisy.

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