And they didn't crumble for over 400 years untill the second world war when the city was raided by Soviets. Upper parts of the church were damaged. Lot of what you see in pictures is actualy a reconstruction. Here you can find photographs made between 1945-1948 in Gdansk: http://sabaoth.infoserve.pl/danzig-online/1945.html Well, the architect of Saint Mary's church was german... but who cares The city was multinational untill after the WWII. By the way, you might be interested in the largest brick castle in the world. It's situated in the small city of Malbork not far from Gdansk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malbork_Castle http://images.google.com/images?client=ope...sa=N&tab=wi Unfortunately, it wasn't built by Poles It was highly damaged during the war too. There was also a castle in Gdansk in 15th century, also built by teutonic order. When teutonic knights were driven away by Poles, angry citizens pulled down the whole building. Cool Red brick was more popular in Poland and Prussia than Western Europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_gothic Cheer up While the old town is truly beautiful, it's surrounded by ugly blocks like we have seen in half-life 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaspa