Baszta na Podmurzu, Gdańsk

Baszta na Podmurzu is a Gothic defensive tower, preserved from Gdańsk’s medieval fortification system. It stands in the Main Town and ranks among the oldest surviving towers of that system. Its neighbours are Baszta Bramy Szerokiej and Baszta Jacek.

Built in the fifteenth century, it was almost entirely destroyed during the wartime fighting of 1945. Gdańsk gave the damaged structure a new cultural role in 1988, assigning it to a newly created branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Gdańsk. That branch opened in 1997, became the Gdańsk Museum of Sport and Tourism in 2000, and closed at the end of 2008. What you see today is therefore both a medieval defensive remnant and a rebuilt site with a short museum history.