Neptune in Gdansk - history, legends and trivia

The Neptune Fountain in Gdansk is one of the city's symbols. You can find it on the most representative street of the Old Town: Dlugi Targ, right in front of the Artus Court. The Gdansk sculpture of the sea ruler has a very interesting history, and there are also many intriguing legends and stories surrounding it.

Neptune Fountain - history and facts

• The Neptune sculpture was created in 1612, it's over 600 years old!
• It was designed by Abraham van den Blocke, and the bronze casting was made by Piotr Husen
• Neptune himself weighs 650 kg and is 2 m "tall" and once was... colorful, more precisely, it was painted green
• From the creation of the Neptune statue to its placement in the square and the inauguration of the fountain, it took 22 years. The inauguration took place on March 23 (or 26), 1634 and was combined with the celebration of King Wladyslaw IV's victory at Smolensk.
• Before the city had waterworks, in order to operate the fountain, water tanks were placed in the attic of the Town Hall and Artus Court. Water was poured from them into the fountain only on certain days (not every day)
• Polish eagles appeared on the grate surrounding the fountain only in the mid-18th century, they were removed in 1936.
• During World War II, the sculpture was kept in Parchowo near Bytow
• The youngest element of the fountain is the "fig leaf". It was installed by the city authorities in 1988.

Neptune Fountain - legends and trivia

• Apparently, in old times, among people who visited Gdansk for the first time, there was a custom of jumping into the fountain and kissing Neptune... on the buttocks! This was supposed to bring luck and success in business. According to the legend, it was during such a "meeting" that Neptune gave advice to the sailor Jan from Koln on how to fulfill his dreams.
• The fig leaf is in fact not a leaf, but a seahorse's fin. This clever "curtain" has disappeared several times. Currently, it is made not of metal, but thin plastic, which discourages scrap collectors
• During the last renovation of the fountain (2011/12), a time capsule was installed under the Neptune statue, I wonder what it contains?

Neptune and the legend of Gdansk Goldwasser

One of the Gdansk stories says that Neptune from the Gdansk fountain is involved in the creation of the famous local golden drink. The residents and guests of the city often threw gold coins into the fountain "for luck". When there were so many of them that the fountain stopped working, the angry sea ruler struck them with his trident and shattered them into thousands of small gold flakes, and the water in the fountain turned into a sweet liqueur.

Tempted by easy money, innkeepers filled barrels with the golden drink from the fountain all night long. Only one of them, the owner of the inn "Under the Salmon" on Szeroka Street, decided not to rob Neptune. In the morning, it turned out that the barrels of greedy merchants contained only pure water, and the cellar of the modest innkeeper was filled with tanks of Goldwasser.

PS. If you want to learn more about Gdansk legends "in the field", we recommend the following walking route:

Easy

directions_walk child_friendly

Visiting Gdańsk with children - a walk with legends

straighten 1.7km

timer 28min

north_east 22m

south_east 19m

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Author: Marfusza
Publish Date: 2023-01-19
Last Updated: 2023-03-09