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Gdansk -Motlawa River and Great Crane The Crane over the Motlawa River used to play the double role of a port crane and city gate. The structure was given its present shape in 1442-1444. Inside, a huge wooden wheel was man-powered, that is set in motion by men walking inside it. The crane served not only the cargo reloading purposes, it was also a device to put up ship masts. The Crane was in its times one of the largest seaport cranes in Europe. It began functioning in XVth century. Its nowadays look was given in the second part of that century. The crane was used not only in lifting up the goods but also in building ships. In 1945 the crane went down during a fire. After reconstruction, the crane was "given" to the Central Maritime Museum and thanks to this fact we can now visit this monument.
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