Pretty awesome idea for a thread!
I've been living in the US for the past 2 years, but I was born and spent most of my life in Gdańsk, Poland.
Some interesting trivia:
1. Gdańsk is one of the oldest cities in Poland (it is officially assumed it's been founded in 997) and has some crazy political history, having belonged at various points of its existence to 15 different political entities. That included incarnations of Poland, Germany/Prussia (when it was known as Danzig), Teutonic Order and there were even 2 periods when it was declared a self-governing Free City.
2. Also, it is there
where the WW2 began on the 1st of September 1939.
3. Even though almost entire Old Town area was destroyed during WW2 and rebuilt, the whole complicated history has gifted the city with some amazing architectural gems spanning from gothic to baroque, including one of the
biggest brick cathedrals in the world.
4. The
Solidarity (Solidarność) trade union that ended up effectively overthrowing the communist regime in Poland (ever heard of Lech Wałęsa?) was founded in Gdańsk in 1980 after workers' protests in Gdańsk Shipyard. This forced Polish government to be the first in the Eastern Bloc country to start giving concessions to the people, some 2-3 years before the others. The newly built
European Solidarity Centre in the city now sells a lot of gadgets with the slogan "Freedom was born in Gdańsk" and that is by no means an exaggeration.
5. Every summer, the city is hosting
St. Dominic's Fair - one of the biggest open-air events of its kind along with German Weihnachtsmarkts and Oktoberfest and also one of the oldest (it has a tradition dating back to 1260, with the only significant break being caused by the WW2). For 3 weeks, the Old Town is filled with merchant/craftsmen/collector stands, tasty food and cultural events. Most of it looks like a huge flea market and me and my friends have always used is as a perfect opportunity to get some cool used music CDs/vinyls (some of them out of sale for years). And bear in mind - you haven't really visited Gdańsk if you haven't tried the specialty of the fair - bread with lard and dill pickles <3
6. Gdańsk has the
oldest technical university still in existence in Poland, established in 1904.
7. We also have the biggest zoo in Poland
8. Historically, one of the biggest regional exports was amber. Nowadays, Gdańsk hosts the
biggest amber trade fair in the world.
9. In the recent years, Gdańsk (and the whole tri-city area, together with cities of Sopot and Gdynia) has built an extensive bicycle road network and now it's one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the country.
10. One of the craziest trivia for me is that even though Gdańsk is a coastal city (although it lies between the sea and some small moraine hills), before WW2 it was known for being a... winter sports destination. The most popular were speed-skating, luge, bobsleigh and even ski jumping, for which the city had 2 small hills (
here and
there; unfortunately, nowadays there's almost no trace of them
).
11.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, the guy who created the Fahrenheit temperature scale, causing pain for pretty much every US immigrant used to normal (a.k.a. Celsius) scale, was born in Gdańsk