POLAND

POLAND / POLSKA.

1000th Anniversary of Gdańsk.
"Panorama of Gdańsk from Biskupia Góra" by Matthäus Merian the Elder (1640).
Minisheet issued on 18.04.1997.
Face value: 1.10 Polish złoty.
Design: Tomasz Bogusławski.
Engraving: Jan Maciej Kopecki.
Printing: Photogravure and recess.
Print: 550,000 copies.
Size: 94 x 71 mm.

Catalogs
- AFA No. 3534.
- Fischer No. BL159A.
- Michel No. BL129A.
- Scott No. 3343.
- StampWorld No. 3647.
- Stanley Gibbons No. MS3668.
- Yvert et Tellier No. BF139.

In the year 980 a fortress was built on the place where Gdańsk is located, documented in the year 999 by Adalbert of Magdeburg, which describes events of 997. This date is considered as the founding of Gdańsk. Ruled by the Polish Piast dynasty, in 1361 it became a member of the Hanseatic League. In 1793 it was annexed by Prussia, and in the Napoleonic era, between 1807 and 1814 it enjoyed the status of a semi-autonomous state, and was later reintegrated into Prussia under the name of Danzig. In 1863, after the reunification of Germany, it became a German city, and in 1871 of the German Empire. In 1919, after the First World War, by agreement of the Treaty of Versailles, with its territory it became a free city (Freie Stadt Danzig), under the tutelage of the League of Nations, until in 1936 it was annexed again to Germany by the Nazis. During the Second World War it suffered great destruction, and after the war, through Yalta and Potsdam conferences, it was annexed by Poland.

-
Thanks to Krystyna Betiuk for his contribution (https://pocztowkowezbiory.blogspot.com/)