Main Town Hall (Museum of Gdańsk)

The Main Town Hall stands at ul. Długa 46/47 in the Main Town of Gdańsk, in the Pomeranian region of Poland, at the point where the Royal Route runs between the Golden Gate and the Long Market. Its Gothic-Renaissance body is crowned by a slender tower that rises roughly 80 m, and the building is the main branch of the Museum of Gdańsk. Inside, visitors walk through a sequence of restored council and civic chambers that were once the seat of the city's government when Gdańsk was one of the wealthiest Hanseatic ports on the Baltic. The Red Room is the best-known interior, a richly decorated hall used for official receptions and meetings, and visitors can study its painted ceiling, carved woodwork and portals at close range. Other rooms host exhibitions on the history of the city, its merchants and its civic life, and the museum also stages temporary displays. The climb up the tower rewards visitors with a viewing platform over the Main Town, the Motława river, the gabled facades of Długa Street and, on clear days, the shipyard cranes and the Baltic horizon beyond. The platform is open to the weather and the stairs are narrow, so the ascent suits those comfortable with heights and many steps. A typical visit takes one to one and a half hours: roughly an hour for the interiors and a further twenty or thirty minutes for the tower. The museum is typically open from 10AM to 4PM Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays, with longer hours in summer. Morning is the quietest time, before cruise and tour groups reach the Royal Route around midday. Photographers favour the facade from the Long Market side in soft morning light, and the view of the tower framed by Neptune's Fountain is one of the most reproduced images of the city. Adult admission is about 25 PLN, with a reduced ticket of about 15 PLN. Tram and bus stops named Ratusz sit within a minute's walk, and the building is also an easy first or last stop on a walking tour of the Royal Route.