Resilience, thy name is Gdańsk. The city’s architecture alone – more Amsterdam or Antwerp than Kraków – reflects the shifting empires of Baltic history. The earliest shots of the Second World War were fired here by the Nazi battleship Schleswig-Holstein. And, 40 years later, Gdańsk became the birthplace of the Solidarność (Solidarity) movement that expedited the fall of the Iron Curtain. Today, the city revels in doing right by those who fought for its freedom, drawing industries like finance, engineering and manufacturing, and boasting the continent’s lowest unemployment. Gdańsk is also a creative dynamo: the historic Młode Miasto (Young City) shipyards are being developed into a 16-hectare mixed-use cultural and business district, with Euro Styl’s DOKI quarter slated for handover in 2027 and Montownia’s food hall already a daily meeting point. Baltic Hub’s €470-million T3 terminal was inaugurated in 2025 and PKM Południe is a planned rail link for southern districts that are forecast to reach 100,000 residents by 2030. The city is also a notable cultural destination. Its Communist-era apartment blocks are enlivened by 60 murals, including images of Chopin and Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa, and 2026 will see the continued construction of the 11.5-hectare site of the Museum of Westerplatte and the War of 1939.