The historic port of Danzig, now called Gdansk, is located on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, where the Vistula discharges its waters in a fan-shaped delta into the half moon of the Bay of Gdansk....In the late Middle Ages, the German merchants of Danzig converted their wealth into splendid architecture. They built houses with ornate entrance terraces and gilded gables and cathedrals of immense proportions, which towered over the residences like guardians of treasuries. Danzig became known as the Venice of the North....