Amber: the altar in Gdańsk, the lost Amber Room, and how to recognize genuine amber

In the Basilica of St. Bridget in Gdańsk, an amber altar nearly 13 meters high has been under construction for over twenty years. According to its creator, it is to be larger than the famous Amber Room, one of the most valuable lost treasures of World War II. The Room itself, although associated with Russia, was mostly created by Gdańsk masters.

This guide combines three stories about "Baltic gold": about the altar, which is still not finished, about the Room, which has been searched for since 1945, including in Poland, and about amber itself. You will learn how old it is, why the Germans call it "the stone that burns," how to check if you are buying genuine amber, and what rules apply when collecting it on the beach.

Amber altar, under construction since 2001

The idea was born in 2000, and construction began in 2001. The initiators were the parish priest of St. Bridget, Father Henryk Jankowski, and Gdańsk amber craftsmen. The altar was designed by Professor Stanisław Radwański, a former rector of the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts, and amber craftsman Mariusz Drapikowski, who also created most of the elements. It is nearly 13 meters high and covers an area of 120 m². It is a metal structure built into the presbytery and gradually filled with amber elements. PAP (dzieje.pl), 2017.

In the center of the altar is a painting of Our Lady of the Guardian of Workers, painted by Father Franciszek Znaniecki shortly after December 1970. PAP (dzieje.pl), 2025. The dress of Our Lady is made of amber. The altar is a votive offering from Gdańsk amber craftsmen for regaining freedom in 1980 and 1989, and its creator also speaks of gratitude for the pontificate of John Paul II. Amber Route about the altar. The altar also includes an amber monstrance. Pomorskie Prestige about the altar and monstrance.

Still unfinished

The altar was consecrated on December 16, 2017, on the 47th anniversary of December '70, during a mass attended by the apostolic nuncio. It was not finished at that time, and plans included installations at the base imitating fields of grain with amber grains. PAP (dzieje.pl). On February 9, 2025, a Volhynian cross was installed in it: a wooden cross from a Polish grave in Volhynia, reconstructed by Drapikowski, consecrated on the 82nd anniversary of the crime in Parośl. PAP (dzieje.pl), 2025.

In August 2025, the Amber Route reported that the central part of the altar, the amber dress of Our Lady, and part of the structure and sculptures could be viewed, but the entire altar was still not finished. Once completed, it is to be the largest amber work in the world. Amber Route, 2025. We found no information about the completion of the altar in 2026 or reliable data on how much amber has already been used.

Basilica of St. Bridget, Solidarity, and the dispute over the parish priest

The Church of St. Bridget is closely linked to the history of Solidarity. Its long-time parish priest, Father Henryk Jankowski, was called the chaplain of Solidarity and in 1980 held masses for striking shipyard workers. During his life, he was also criticized, among other things, for anti-Semitic remarks in his sermons, for which he received a one-year ban on preaching in 1997, and for promoting wine with his image. In 2004, he was removed from his position as parish priest. He died in 2010. Kraków Post, 2010.

In December 2018, "Gazeta Wyborcza" published a report with allegations of long-term sexual abuse of children by Father Jankowski. The allegations concern a deceased person and have not been verified by the court. On March 7, 2019, the Gdańsk City Council stripped him of honorary citizenship, decided to remove his statue from the basilica, and change the name of the square. OKO.press, 2019. We mention this because his name is associated with the beginnings of the altar.

The Amber Room, mostly made by Gdańsk craftsmen

The Amber Room is associated with Russia, but it was created in Prussia. In 1701, it was commissioned by the Prussian King Frederick I. It was designed by Andreas Schlüter, and the first panels were made by Gottfried Wolfram. After six years, about one-fourth of the panels were completed, and in 1707 Wolfram was dismissed after a payment dispute. Russell Shor, "Gems & Gemology" (GIA), 2018.

The work was completed by Gdańsk masters Gottfried Turau and Ernst Schacht. Turau was the master craftsman, meaning the chairman of the Gdańsk amber guild, and thus one of the most important craftsmen in the city. By 1713, they had completed most of the sculptures, 4 of the 12 pilasters, and most of the panels, which is about 95% of the walls. There, the origin of Wolfram himself is disputed: English-language sources describe him as a master from the Danish court, while a publication from the city of Gdańsk calls him a Gdańsk resident.

The Room for 40 grenadiers

On November 17, 1716, King Frederick William I gifted the unfinished panels to Tsar Peter I. According to GIA, in return, he received a company of 40 grenadiers. Other sources provide different numbers of soldiers. In 1755, the Room was moved to the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg. The walls were larger there, so architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli added 18 pilasters with mirrors. GIA. In Tsarskoye Selo, the Room survived for 186 years, from 1755 to 1941, and became one of the most famous interiors in Europe.

Amber under wallpaper and 36 hours of robbery

In 1941, after the German attack on the USSR, curators tried to hide the amber under wallpaper. They were unsuccessful. The Germans dismantled the Room in 36 hours, packed it into 27 crates, and transported it by train to Königsberg. GIA.

The last certain trace is a note from Dr. Alfred Rohde dated January 12, 1945. In it, he wrote about a plan to transport the panels to Wechselburg in Saxony. The panels were never found afterward. There, the greatest mysteries of World War II begin.

A mosaic that surfaced in Bremen

In 1997, an original fragment of the Room appeared in Bremen, Germany: a Florentine mosaic made of precious stones representing the senses of touch and smell, according to the design of Italian artist Giuseppe Zocchi. A retiree tried to sell it through a notary and claimed he received it from his father, a soldier from the Eastern Front. The authorities in Bremen confiscated the mosaic, and the notary was prosecuted for attempted fraud. GIA.

In 2000, Germany returned the mosaic to Russia. In return, Russia returned 101 paintings and drawings taken from the city after the war. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 2000. This is one of the few original elements of the Room that have been found.

Mamerki, the golden train, and the wreck of Karlsruhe

The Room has been searched for in many countries, including Poland. All the theories below are hypotheses, and none have led to the discovery of the treasure.

• Mamerki in Masuria: at the former headquarters of the German land forces near Węgorzewo, a museum drilled under one of the bunkers in 2017 after detecting anomalies with ground-penetrating radar. This was the third attempt. Result: "there is no room here." TVN24, 2017. In 2023, an unknown narrow-gauge railway with a wagon was excavated there under a one-and-a-half-meter layer of soil, along with hundreds of items, including a porcelain plate from Rosenthal with a swastika and a bottle of Maggi seasoning. The museum linked this work with hopes of finding the Room, but no amber was found. Notes from Poland, 2023.
• Wałbrzych: in 2015, there was much talk about a supposed "golden train" hidden in a tunnel. Skeptics pointed out the lack of documents, and no connection to the Room was proven.
• Wreck of the steamer Karlsruhe: in the fall of 2020, divers from the Baltictech group discovered the wreck of a ship sunk by Soviet aviation on April 13, 1945, at a depth of about 88 meters, north of Ustka. The ship sank in about 3 minutes. There were 1,083 people on board, and about 113 were rescued. In its holds lie crates of unknown contents. The search leader, Tomasz Stachura, estimated the chance that it contained the Room at about 1%. CBS News, 2020. The wreck is a war grave, and diving is prohibited there.

One theory also suggests that the Room burned in Königsberg in 1945. This hypothesis cannot be proven either. On the internet, the Room is sometimes associated with the ship Wilhelm Gustloff or with the Wolf's Lair in Gierłoża, but we found no reliable sources for this.

Reconstruction funded by a German gas company

In 1979, the authorities of the USSR decided to recreate the Room. The work lasted 24 years, which is about twice as long as the construction of the original from 1701 to 1713. By 1991, the equivalent of $7.85 million had been spent on it, and in 1999, the German gas company Ruhrgas added $3.5 million on the condition that the work be completed by April 2003. According to GIA, about 6,000 kg of the best amber was used. GIA.

The reconstructed Room was opened on May 31, 2003, by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. According to "The Irish Times," the reconstruction cost over $10 million in total and consumed six tons of amber. The Irish Times, 2003. Sources differ on the number of elements: GIA mentions about 100,000, while "Irish Times" states 500,000 tiles.

Gdańsk, the capital of amber, and amber in space

Amber workshops have been operating in Gdańsk since the late 10th century. In 1477, the first guild of amber craftsmen was established here, and the golden age of Gdańsk craftsmanship occurred at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. After the wars of the 20th century, not a single old workshop survived. National Geographic Traveler, 2026.

In 2025, Gdańsk amber went to space. A piece from Sobieszewo Island was cut into two parts, and one of them was taken to the International Space Station by Polish astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski. Upon return, both parts are compared to check if the stay in space changed the properties of the amber. There.

Amber Museum in the Great Mill

The Amber Museum, a branch of the Gdańsk Museum, has been operating since 2006, and since 2021 it has been located in the 14th-century Great Mill at ul. Wielkie Młyny 16. It has over a thousand exhibits, and it is worth reserving at least an hour for the visit. Gdańsk Museum, guide before the visit.

In the museum, there is a piece of amber weighing 68.2 kg, which was presented as the largest in the world. It was weighed in 2022 in the presence of representatives of the Guinness World Records. However, there is a surprise: the piece comes from a coal mine in Sumatra, Indonesia, so it is not Baltic amber. The museum purchased it in 2021 for over 140,000 zlotys, and it can be viewed without a ticket, in a display case at the cash register. Notes from Poland, 2022.

Another treasure of the museum is a lizard trapped in amber, found in 1997 on the Gdańsk Stogi by amber worker Gabriela Gierłowska. It was the first lizard discovered in Baltic amber in over a hundred years. The previous one was described in 1875 by German researcher Richard Klebs. The specimen is over 40 million years old. Polish Geological Institute, "Amber" brochure. According to National Geographic Traveler, the museum also houses a gecko of an unknown species, the largest known inclusion of a tarantula measuring about 4 cm, and the only known specimen of an insect from the mantid family. In 2026, a cannon made of amber and gold from around 1660, one of two known objects of this kind, returned to Gdańsk. National Geographic Traveler, 2026. Every year, international amber and jewelry fairs Amberif take place in Gdańsk. AmberExpo, Amberif.

Resin from 40 million years ago that burns

Baltic amber, scientifically called succinite, formed from the resin of coniferous trees about 40 million years ago. The resin flowed down rivers to the sea, where it hardened over millions of years. There are over 100 known types of fossil resins called amber worldwide, and the oldest is about 300 million years old. Polish Geological Institute.

• Light as water: the density of amber is 0.9–1.1 g/cm³, so it is similar to the density of water.
• Soft: hardness of 2–2.5 on the ten-point Mohs scale.
• Electrifies: when rubbed, it attracts scraps of paper.
• Burns: it burns with a sooty flame and smells like resin. Hence the German name Bernstein, meaning "the stone that burns."
• Identifying feature: Baltic amber contains 3–8% succinic acid. Other resins contain less or none at all.
• Scientific name: the word "succinite" was introduced in 1820 by German mineralogist August Breithaupt. The ancients called amber "succinum," meaning tree sap.

All this data comes from the Polish Geological Institute brochure. Amber most often contains trapped flies, ants, beetles, and plant fragments.

How to recognize genuine amber and why no home test is certain

Amber is faked with glass, plastic, synthetic resins, and copal, which is young resin that has not yet turned into amber. There is also ambroid, which is real amber pressed from crumbs under heat and pressure. It is not a fake, but it has less value than a solid piece, so the seller should describe it honestly. According to the Polish Geological Institute, amber can only be unequivocally identified in a laboratory using infrared spectroscopy. PIG-PIB.

The rules for the tests are described in the card "How to recognize genuine amber", prepared based on materials from PIG-PIB and the Amber Museum. Some guides recommend the hot needle test, but it destroys the specimen, so it is not worth doing. The most sensible approach is to combine several tests and, for more expensive purchases, ask for a certificate.

Copal, ambroid, and "blue amber"

It is most difficult to distinguish amber from copal, as it is also natural resin, just much younger. According to the card prepared based on materials from PIG-PIB, copal fades under UV light, and when cut, it may stretch into threads. Card "How to recognize genuine amber". Ambroid is genuine amber, but pressed from crumbs under heat and pressure. It is not a fake, but it has less value than a solid piece, so the seller should describe it honestly. Be cautious with offers of exotic "blue amber" as well. The American Gemological Institute (GIA) studied an item sold as blue amber, which turned out to be glass. It was primarily revealed by its weight: the density was about 2.5 g/cm³, while amber is about 1.08. Genuine blue amber glows strongly blue under ultraviolet light, while glass reacts weakly or not at all. Under a microscope, gas bubbles were visible. GIA, "Artificial Glass Imitating Blue Amber". Such a fake would already be detected by a simple saltwater test, as glass sinks.

Collecting amber on the beach: what is allowed and what is not

Amber is easiest to find after a strong storm from the north, in the strip of seaweed washed ashore, preferably in the morning. Card "How to recognize genuine amber". Seaweed is a protected habitat, so it should not be trampled.

The rules for collecting were explained in 2024 by the spokesperson of the Maritime Office in Gdynia. Amateur collection for personal use does not require written permission from the office if it does not threaten the technical strip of the coast. RMF24, 2024. However, several rules apply:

• Collection is only allowed on the beach and in shallow water near the shore, not on dunes, cliffs, in forests, or national parks.
• Only hand collection is allowed. Sieves, motor pumps, sluices, and digging equipment are prohibited.
• You must not disturb other beachgoers.
• Findings of historical value must be reported to the conservator of monuments. This was the case in 2022 with a medieval cross found on the beach near Sobieszewo Island, which was sent to the museum.
• Be careful of freshly deposited sand at expanded beaches. It can be soft and may pull you in up to your waist.

There is information circulating on the internet about a "limit of 10 kg without a concession." We found no legal basis for it, so do not treat it as an obligatory rule.

Myths about amber and the Amber Room