The path of Hevelions

Gdansk is full of unknown things. This is a city filled with legends and with a rich long history. As the city Gdansk was mentioned in 999 in the “Life of Saint Wojciech”, written by John Kasprius.

In 1242, the city was granted the right to hold the annual St. Dominic’s fair. Gdansk received city rights in 1263. In 1308, the city was taken over by the brandenburgers, and then the Teutonic Knights made a brutal massacre on the local residents. In the following years, according to various agreements, Gdansk was included in Polish lands or it was taken away. In 1793 Gdansk became a part of Prussian partition. Pursuant to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, Gdansk became a free city in 1920. On 1 September 1939, a volley from the ship Schleswig-Holstein on the Westerplatte started World War II. On September 1 a heroic defense of the Polish post office in Gdansk took place and on September 1-7 the defense of Westerplatte continued. During the events of December 1970, a strike began at the Gdansk shipyard. On 31 August 1980 the August agreements were signed which ended a wave of workers ‘ protests and strikes.

However, the most important year in our history is 2015, because it was then when the Gdansk tourism organization initiated the creation of the hewelions’ route.

Hevelions are small bronze figures with the image of Gdansk ‘s symbolic animal – a lion. The little lions owe their name to the Gdansk astronomer Johannes Hevelius. They can be found in characteristic places in Gdansk, including Great Mill, the Hevelianum center, the Tourist Information Center building, the Energa Gdansk stadium, the zoo, the airport, the Brzezno pier, and many others. All places can be found on the Internet. In addition, each Hevelion has an attribute associated with the object it stands next to. Moreover a mobile app “iLeo” is being created, thanks to which, standing next to a certain Hevelion, we learn the history of the place where this brown cute lion stands.

Just like Wroclaw has its gnomes, Zielona Góra – “bachuski”, Tarnowskie Góry – “gwarki”, so Gdansk has its’ Hevelions. Following their path is not only an interesting form of spending time actively in Gdansk, but also thanks to it we can learn Gdansk history from charming and symbolic characters.