Gdańsk, PolandThe largest medieval port crane in Europe — a 1442–44 wooden crane on the Motława River embankment, used to load and unload ships for 400 years, now a museum inside the Maritime Museum. The most distinctive medieval industrial monument in Europe and the icon of Gdańsk.
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The most beautiful street in Poland — Gdańsk's Royal Way is a mile-long parade of reconstructed Dutch Mannerist merchant houses from the 17th century, more colorful and ornate than Amsterdam's canals and almost entirely rebuilt after WWII to match the originals. The Golden Gate, Arthur's Court, and the Fountain of Neptune punctuate the route.
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One of Europe's most important modern museums — built at the Gdańsk Shipyard where the Solidarity trade union was born in 1980, telling the story of how Polish shipyard workers ended communism and changed the world. The rusted Corten steel building, evoking a ship's hull, is one of the great 21st-century museum buildings.