A surviving witness of those times is an imposing three-hundred-and-fifty-year-old English oak, whose trunk measures over five and a half metres in circumference. The dawn of the 18th Century marked a change in the ownership of the residence at 125 Polanki Street, and, consequently, redevelopment into a markedly more impressive brick construction. At the end of the century the property found itself in the hands of Joachim Wilhelm von Weickmann, the Mayor of Gdańsk. The early 19th Century saw another extension to the building in the form of a garden pavilion with a cupola and a column-supported portico. This Neoclassical structure, along with the adjoining annexes and the garden extension, survived frequent changes in ownership until 1945 when the Communal Forests Directorate in Gdańsk took hold of it. Regrettably the ponds and fountains scattered around the park have failed to stand the test of time and the park itself has lost the glamour and pristine quality it used to project.
Foto: M. Bieliński – Dep. Turystyki UMWP
