Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic coast of northern Poland. With a population of 470,907, Gdańsk is the capital and largest city of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the most prominent city in the geographical region of Pomerania. It is Poland's principal seaport and the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.
The city is situated at the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay, in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, the resort town of Sopot, and suburban communities; these form a metropolitan area called the Tricity, with a population of approximately 1.5 million. Gdańsk lies at the mouth of the Motława River, connected to the Leniwka, a branch in the delta of the Vistula River, which drains 60 percent of Poland and connects Gdańsk with the Polish capital, Warsaw.
The city's history is complex, with periods of Polish, Prussian and German rule, and periods of autonomy as a free city-state. An important shipbuilding port and trade point since the Middle Ages, in 1361 it became a member of the Hanseatic League which defined its economic, demographic and urban landscape for several centuries.