Wieża Więzienna, Gdańsk

Wieża Więzienna is the gate tower joined to the Torture Chamber, forming the fortified entrance complex for Długa Street. The tower began as part of the medieval defences of Gdańsk’s Main Town. Its foundations belong to the opening years of the fourteenth century, and city builder Henryk Ungeradin created a tower with a pointed gateway and an enclosed court.

Later medieval additions raised it further, before Michał Enkinger gave it a steep roof and slender corner turrets. During Stephen Báthory’s siege of Gdańsk, that roof burned in fifteen seventy-seven. Antoni van Obberghen altered the tower in fifteen ninety-four, finishing it with a Baroque dome-like crown.

Baroque here means an expressive, theatrical manner of building, well suited to this commanding gateway. Once the tower ceased to serve the city’s defences in sixteen oh four, it, the Torture Chamber, and their link became a prison. The eastern façade carried a pillory, where many executions took place.

Wartime destruction again consumed the roof, and the Gdańsk Historical Museum later completed the rebuilding and conservation. The complex housed the Amber Museum until it moved to the Great Mill; its former galleries now hold the Museum of the Reconstruction of Gdańsk.