The Host City of Euro 2012: Gdansk, Poland

Gdansk's Fact

Population (2009)	:	455,830
City's Area	:	262 km²
Coordinates	:	54°22'N 18°38'E
Time Zone	:	CET (UTC+1), CEST (UTC+2) when summer time
Motto	:	Nec Temere, Nec Timide (Latin: "Neither rashly, nor timidly")
City's Stadium	:	PGE Arena Gdansk (44,000 seats)
Top Football Club	:	Lechia Gdansk
Website	:	www.gdansk.pl

Coat of Arms

Gdansk or in German languange called Danzig is a port city and one of the old town in Poland. As a port city, Gdansk is also full of nuance. Many ancient buildings, gardens, rivers and charming nature. The city is located at the mouth of the River Motlawa connected to Leniwka, a delta is located near the Vistula River. Gdansk which is derived from the name Gdania River, the old name Motlawa River is also often called the world capital of amber because of the content of the precious stones in the city. Amber is also found in many local shops and popular as souvenirs for tourists to their countries.

As well as a port city, Gdansk is also famous as the city of the birthplace of Solidarity, a democratic movement that helped topple communist rule in Poland and marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War era. Lech Walesa the electrician, who later became the first president of post-Soviet Union, in 1980, is leading the strike of 17 thousand shipbuilders, making union Solidarity as the first non-communist stand in the Soviet bloc. The movement is then triggered the collapse of communism across Europe.

Zuraw Port Crane

Because Gdansk if famous for the harbor and its old buildings, one of the famous tourist destination is Zuraw, a port on the River Motlawa. In Zuraw there is a wooden port crane that build in 1367. The large crane was used to place masts on ships and to load cargo. During World War II, the wooden area was destroyed and only 60% of the brick portion remained in tact. After the war, Zuraw was once again rebuilt and handed over to the museum. Today the crane is home to a branch of the Maritime Museum.

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

One of the most famous people born in Gdansk was Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit. He was born in May 24, 1686 in Gdansk but lived most of his life in the Dutch Republic. Fahrenheit is best known for inventing the alcohol thermometer (1709) and the mercury thermometer (1714), and for developing a temperature scale now named after him. Until the switch to the Celsius scale, the Fahrenheit scale was widely used in Europe. It is still used for everyday temperature measurements by the general population in the United States, Belize and less so in the UK and Canada.

Gdansk's Map

Distance to other Euro 2012 Venues

Poznan	:	305 km
Warsaw	:	345 km
Wroclaw	:	480 km
Lviv	:	725 km
Kyiv	:	1,190 km
Kharkiv	:	1,600 km
Donetsk	:	1,810 km

Source : goal.com, wikipedia, bolaeropa.com, gdansk-life.com


Related Article :

• Let's Peek Euro 2012
• Schedule of Euro 2012