Gdansk Amber

Amber is fossil resin from forests that stood here around forty million years ago, and the Baltic still washes it up, mostly after autumn and winter storms. Gdansk built a trade on working it, and the craft is still visible rather than historical. Mariacka street, running from St Mary's church to the water gate, is lined with workshops whose stone terraces and gargoyles are hung with amber displayed on trays. The city museum of amber moved into the Great Mill in 2021, showing raw lumps with insects trapped inside, tools and finished work. In St Bridget's church a large altarpiece is being built out of amber, and it has been under way for years.

What you actually see

• Mariacka street - workshops and stalls under stone terraces between the church and the water gate.
• The Amber Museum - inclusions, raw material and finished pieces inside the Great Mill.
• The amber altar - the unfinished altarpiece in St Bridget's church, still being added to.
• Beach hunting - the search along the tideline after a storm, when small pieces wash in.

When to go

All year, since most of this is indoors. Storms in late autumn and winter are what put amber on the beaches, and that is when locals walk the tideline with nets. Summer brings the highest prices and the busiest shops. A trade fair devoted to amber is held in the city, which fills hotels for a few days.

Honest expectations

A good deal of what is sold cheaply near the tourist streets is pressed amber, resin or plastic, and telling the difference takes some knowledge or a shop that will test a piece in front of you. Prices on Mariacka are aimed at visitors. Finding amber yourself on the beach takes patience and usually yields fragments the size of a grain.

Nearby

St Mary's church, the Motlawa waterfront and the old town of Gdansk are all around it.