This time last year we undertook an epic journey, driving our 93 Fiat Panda (which had previously been off the road for some time) from Manchester to Saint Petersburg and back.  Along the way it was great to see the changes in architectural styles, going up through Sweden and Finland, in to Russia, then back through the Baltics and Northern Europe.

Obviously we have a special interest in decorative metalwork (for which Saint Petersburg certainly did not disappoint), especially weathervanes.  Though there were some great examples on the whole trip (some of which I may get round to posting on here one day), especially on the Russian Orthodox churches, one place really stood out for weathervanes and that was Gdansk.

We only spent 2 nights in Gdansk but it is definitely on the list of places we would love to revisit and spend more time.  Its historic centre was virtually levelled during the Second World War and faced with the choice of recreating the original town or starting afresh the decision was made to rebuild, based on historic photos, documents and plans.  They did make some changes to make the buildings more practical, indeed the roads now have bigger public garden spaces between them.  By drawing rooms level in neighbouring buildings more practical flats were created and on top of all of these reconstructions are dated weathervanes!

Weathervane fitted to medieval crane in Gdansk

On the docks one of the most recognisable landmarks of Gdansk is the medieval crane, and it has this iconic weathervane on top.  It is unusual in Gdansk as most of the weathervanes are the more traditional banner types, seen in the image below.

Traditional banner style weathervanes in Gdansk

I think this is a great way to recognise the dates that the buildings were completed, a weathervane is in my opinion the perfect way to top off a new building in style.