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With a view to the Baltic Sea

Our geopolitical imagination, which until recently was stretched along the East-West axis, has now gained a new dimension – the North. This new perception is becoming the impetus for economic as well as demographic changes that are taking place along the Polish coast.

The city of Gdańsk, one of the largest port cities in Europe, reached the height of its power at the turn of the 17th century. During this period, it held the prestigious status of a royal city, enjoying extensive autonomy and maintaining its own naval fleet. In return for loyalty and financial support, the Polish kings granted the city numerous privileges. Thanks to its location on the Baltic Sea and at the mouth of the Vistula river, Gdańsk controlled the trade in grain, timber and salt.

July 8, 2025 - Piotr Leszczyński - Hot TopicsIssue 4 2025Magazine

It was the main port of export for the First Polish Republic. Gdańsk was also famous for its multiculturalism and religious tolerance. It was inhabited by different ethnic and religious groups who lived in the city, side by side. These included Poles, Germans, Dutch, Scots, Jews and Kashubians. 

The period of the city’s prosperity was ended by the wars and crises that happened in the second half of the 17th century. They included the Swedish Deluge as well as conflicts with Prussia and Russia, which all led to the decline of Gdańsk’s position. However, the proud motto of the city’s 17th-century merchants, which in Latin reads Nec temere, nec timide, and which in English means “neither cowardly, nor timidly,” is still printed on the city’s coats of arms, reminding us of the greatness of this Baltic port.

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