Repozytorium publikacji - Politechnika Gdańska

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Repozytorium publikacji
Politechniki Gdańskiej

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Where the Second World War in Europe broke out: the land-scape history of Westerplatte, Gdańsk/Danzig

Westerplatte is known as the place where the Second World War in Europe broke out. However, its history covers many other events involving Polish, German, Russian and even French politics over the last three centuries - neglected by many papers published in the current discussion. Due to its location at the entrance to the main harbour on the Baltic Sea entrance, Wester-platte-Peninsula is cartographically the best-documented part of the delta of the Vistula river. The authors obtained the historical sources for this paper from seven archives, mainly from Po-land and Germany. That in-depth archival research allows the reconstruction of the spatial his-tory of Westerplatte based on a comprehensive archival survey and the digital and cartograph-ical analysis of 207 maps that originated between the 17th and 20th centuries. The results allow the authors to present the complex process of the place's environmental, urban and military transformations of the landscape that played an important role in European history. Studies presented in this article might form the basis for establishing new policy of preserving the cul-tural landscape. Such a tool may allow us to keep a balance between fluctuations of the current historical politics and more universal (solid) requirements for the protection of tangible and in-tangible heritage.

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