History Of Gdynia

In German language, Gdynia is spelled as Gdingen and is one of the youngest towns in Poland. After World War I, Gdynia was created from scratch and Poland obtained a vast and modern window on the world. Gdynia was first mentioned under the name of Gdnina as a fishing village. At that time, Gdynia lacked a seaport.

Before World War I, there was a small village on the seaside known as Okywise in 13th century. Some documents mentioned that Gdynia belonged to Okywise which was the oldest settlement in the area. From 14th to 18th century, Gdynia belonged to a group known as  Cistercian abbey who lived nearby in a tiny village named Oliwa. This village had only 21 houses, yet it brought modest development to Gdnynia.

After World War I

Gdynia was chosen for the construction of a port and from then, development of the city began. Due to efforts of the Polish Minister of Industry and Trade, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, the port was finally completed in 1930, but they didn’t stop the development of port. The port at that time was a special seaport for the export of coal. After almost eight years, Gdynia had the most modern port and contained a great shipyard as well.

In the meantime, Gdynia was granted city rights and its population rose at a very high rate. There were just over a thousand in the 1870s but after the rise of population, there were more than 100,000 inhabitants in 1930. After the arrival of September 1939, the Nazis conquered Poland and turned this town into a German naval base. Later German’s renamed this town as Gotenhafen.

After that, in 1943 and onward, Gdynia witnessed air raids. The real destruction was caused by the German troops withdrawal in 1945 and almost all the buildings and equipment was destroyed. Many ships were drowned who tried escaping through the Baltic sea. The sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff, was the most severe loss of life in all maritime history because more than nine thousand people died on that ship. Germans blocked the port of Gdynia harbor using a battleship named Gneisenau. Even they destroyed the port which was being used to evacuate citizens who were trapped there by the Red Army.

After World War II

The town was completely reconstructed after World War II. Gotenhafen was captured and assigned to Polish. They again named the town Gdynia. The first container terminal of the port of Gdynia was built in 1976.

Gdynia even gained a lot of popularity and brought tourists, that became the reason to construct a very first guesthouse. The historic shipyard remained the greatest domain, except some transitory financial problems. Later on, two Polish fishing companies were established in the port.

The port was concerted into a share-holding company, and they started privatization of the port in 1991. Port Gdynia Holding was established in 1996 and brought a new economic structure to the port.

Hotels in Gdynia are affordable and offer free Wi-Fi access available in the whole area. The hotels are based on one of the best rated locations in Gdynia. If you ever get a chance to visit Gdynia, don’t forget to stay in the top-notch hotels. They are cheap and even the five star hotels are affordable. One of those hotels is the courtyard hotel with the scandinavian restarant Gard.

Gdynia remains the Port City and became the first ever smartest city in Eastern Europe containing hotels at a splendid location.