In 1260, Pope Alexander IV granted the Dominican friars of Gdańsk the right to give indulgences on their founder's feast day, and a market grew up around the church celebration — ships came in for it with wine, cloth, glass and amber. The market still comes. Interrupted by the war and revived in 1972, the fair counts its editions the way a person counts birthdays, and the 2026 edition is the 766th: three weeks, late July through mid-August — this year, 25 July to 16 August.
Once a year, the city hands its keys to the merchants.
It opens the way it has for years: at noon on the first Saturday, in front of the Artus Court on the Long Market, the city hands a symbolic key to the city gates over to the merchants, and a parade follows through the Main Town. A bugle call written for the fair announces the opening — one note is added every year, one for each year of the fair's age.
Then the streets fill. Most years the fair brings roughly a thousand stalls and traders — amber and jewellery, crafts, antiques and vintage, regional food from smoked fish to home-made jams — and for 2026 the organisers have announced around seven hundred exhibitors and nearly three hundred events, shows and workshops besides. Długa and the Long Market are the main artery, stalls end to end down the Royal Way. Mariacka, the amber lane, doubles down on its own trade, and the stalls run on along the riverside Długie Pobrzeże. The collectors' corner — antiques, old books, vinyl, coins — moves for 2026 to Targ Węglowy, the Coal Market, curated down, the organisers say, to the gems.
Now the honest part. For those three weeks the Old Town is genuinely full: streets in the centre close to cars — the city itself asks visitors to come as guests, but not by car — well over a million people pass through, and some downtown residents grumble about the takeover, with reason. The whole Main Town becomes the market. Wonderful, and loud. If you want the quiet Gdańsk during the fair, take it at breakfast, before the stalls wake.
Our homes on Długa, Piwna and Ogarna stand inside all of this, and for three weeks you sleep in the fair — which is either the whole point or the one thing to know before you book; we would rather you chose it on purpose. If a market at the door is not your speed, our seaside home near Brzeźno beach keeps the whole thing a tram ride away. Either way, know the dates — late July through mid-August — and book with them in mind.