Elbląg

Elbląg is a city in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in northern Poland, on the eastern edge of the Żuławy region, with 127,390 inhabitants as of December 2021, and serves as the capital of Elbląg County. Founded in 1237, it is one of the oldest cities in the province and was a member of the Hanseatic League, linking it to other major ports of northern and central Europe; it joined Poland in 1454 and became one of the country's chief ports and a major center for English-Polish trade until Prussia annexed it in the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Its trading role weakened afterward until nineteenth century industrialization, during which the Elbląg Canal, now named one of the Seven Wonders of Poland and a Historic Monument of Poland, was built; the Old Town was severely destroyed in the Second World War and the city returned to Poland afterward. Today Elbląg has over 120,000 inhabitants and serves as an academic and financial center, with historic monuments including the Market Gate of 1309 and St. Nicholas Cathedral, alongside archaeological sites, museums and the country's largest brewery, founded in 1872.