Pachołek, Gdańsk

Pachołek is a wooded hill above Oliwa, rising about 100 metres above sea level. The summit carries a steel viewing platform built in 1975, with its deck about 15 metres above the ground and views across the surrounding area and the Bay of Gdańsk. This hill once belonged to Oliwa’s Cistercian monastery, but after 1772 its story turned toward designed landscape.

From 1794, Berlin gardener Hans Saltzmann directed paths, approaches and planting on the slopes, including ginkgo trees. A viewing pavilion appeared here in 1798, and a brick tower replaced it in 1882. German troops destroyed that tower in March 1945 because they feared it could serve as an observation post during the fighting. The present platform therefore continues a long tradition of making this wooded summit a place for looking outward.