A Walk Around Gdańsk for Physicists

Abstract

I provide a guide to Gdańsk (Danzig) and some of its suburbs, focusing on sites of particular interest to physicists. These include the Town Hall with the old Gdańsk standards of length at its entrance, the solar dial of 1588 on its corner, and its bell tower; the Naturalists Society; the medieval harbor crane; the medieval astronomical clock in St. Mary’s Church; the late nineteenth-century lighthouse and time ball; and sites associated with Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687), Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), and Daniel Gralath (1708–1767). I also comment on the history of and physical research being carried out today at the Technical University of Gdańsk and the University of Gdańsk.