Welcome to free photo gallery of Gdansk - city in Poland

You can see here gallery of black and white and color digital photography taken by Ryszard Lebmor.
Photos of old city in Gdansk: The Hall of the Main City, The Neptun monument, The Market, Mariacki Church, Mariacka street, The Crane over the Motlawa River.

We allow Private Non Commercial Users to download images from our web site as long as you follow the simple rules - see page: free photo.

Gdansk black and white		Gdansk color photos		Gdansk Euro 2012 Baltic Arena 2007-04		Gdansk night photos
Sculptures

Photos taken in:
2003 - 2007

Camera:
Fuji S2 PRO
Nikon D80
Lens:
AF Nikkor ED 80-200 mm 1:2.8,
Sigma EX ASP 24 - 70 mm 1:2.8,
Sigma 10-20/4-5.6 EX DC
Tamron 28 - 75mm 1:2.8

Digital Camera: Olympus Camedia C-4040 (a few of these pictures)

Gdansk

Gdansk or in German Danzig (in older English Dantzig), is an old port in Northern Poland, at the Baltic Sea. Throughout the history, Gdansk traditionally belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, but in the past, until 1945, the city had been mainly populated by the German population. Gdansk was a member of the Hanseatic League and even for a period of time, Gdansk had been the capital of Hansa, and the city's links with the divided then Germany were very strong.
Gdansk played in the 15^th and 16^th centuries an important role in the trade of the world's basic commodity of the time - grain. It is through Gdansk, that the important trading routes exporting Ukrainian harvests direction the harbors of Northern Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, and importing spices, china, textiles and arms. These trading links were at the base of Gdansk prosperity creating the city's complex cultural heritage and its rich architecture. The Kingdom of Poland exerting its power over Gdansk had to accept the city's connection with other German cities and with the German culture.

Poland lost Ukraine to Russia partly in the middle of the 17th century and finally during the 18^th century and as a result, Gdansk lost its economical importance. Russian occupation of Gdansk in 1734 and the annexation of the city by Prussia in 1793 did the rest - Gdansk became the monument of the past within Prussia and later, after 1871, within the united Germany. Napoleon Bonaparte (1807) and the treaty of Versailles after the World War I (1919) unsuccessfully tried to solve duality of Polish and German identities of Gdansk, by creating an independent political entity of it - Free City of Gdansk. Hitler used this compromise solution as a pretext to begin the war. The WWII began on September 1, 1939, with the German battleship firing at the Polish Army and Customs post in the Gdansk harbor.

After the WWII, Gdansk returned to Poland. The city has been heavily damaged by the Russian bombing of 1945. It took tens of years to bring it back to its former glory.

Modern history gave a special role to Gdansk - here in the shipyards, the Solidarity movement was born and the fall of communism started. Unthinkable began to happen through a revolt of simple people, their rejection of the socialist political system.

Today Gdansk is a beautiful old city, with its monuments restored, with its historical monuments rich in Polish, German and Dutch elements exposed.

Photographer's Gdansk

Gdansk is a city of many historical settings, with its historical monuments creating the atmospheres reminding us of the city prosperity in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. Remaining the modern port and the ship and yacht building center, Gdansk is unique in its old narrow streets, its old houses and churches, its canals. The old Gdansk looks even more interesting on the black and white photographs, which seem in a classic way express the city's historical glory.