Baszta Biała, Gdańsk

Baszta Biała, also known as the White Tower, is a medieval tower in Gdańsk’s Old Suburb. Built of brick in the fifteenth century, it was given a circular plan and a conical roof. Notice its plastered outer surface: it was painted white, which supplied the tower’s name.

During the Thirteen Years’ War, Gdańsk recognised that this district also needed protection, and a long defensive line was built here with gates and several towers. This tower formed part of that system. When newer outer fortifications made it obsolete as a fighting structure, it became a gunpowder store.

The surrounding defences largely disappeared in the nineteenth century, but this tower endured. War damage destroyed its roof, tore away part of its walls, and burned out the interior; reconstruction followed after the conflict. Later work uncovered early-modern wall paintings indoors. Since restoration by a mountaineering club, the tower has served as that club’s headquarters—a striking afterlife for a former stronghold.