Do it in the Tri-City! Alternative guide - part one
The Crane, Gdańsk / Fot. Shutterstock
Rybackie Pobrzeże in Gdańsk
This is a remerkable building: a defensive town gate and a harbour crane in one. It is at the same time one of the oldest cranes on our continent for loading cargo onto and off ships: the first mention dates back to as early as 1367. Regrettably, we are not in a position to discover what it looked like in those days, as the first Crane perished in a fire several decades later. In its present shape - i.e. as two brick defensive towers and a wooden crane with a gate in the middle - the Crane was rebuilt in 1444. The building was the property of the city, with the loading mechanism propelled by gigantic wooden wheels, several metres in diameter, operated by longshoremen. The Crane, the older brother of the Gdańsk shipyard cranes, was able to lift an impressive weight of several tonnes to a maximun height of 11 metres and was employed not only to shift cargo but also to erect masts.
Set ablaze by the Red Army in 1945, the Crane was rebuilt after the war and handed over to the Central Maritime Museum. Today, inside the Crane you can see exhibitons on harbour-related themes or go inside the wheels which once propelled the crane's mechanism. Sadly, for safety reasons, it cannot be set in motion any more.
www.cmm.pl