Discover the history of the place - PUB 10/6, whose roots go back to Teutonic times. Discover a space where you can feel the energy of past centuries more and more with every sip of cocktail....
The basement of the Quadrille Hotel, which houses PUB 10/6, is an ingenious source of information about the first manor house built in Mały Kack. The way in which the building layers overlap shows the successive stages of development not only of the cellar itself, but also of the entire Palace. However, let us start from the beginning.
On Monday 10.01.1363, a document was issued at the Teutonic Castle in Gdansk for the knight Piotr of Kacek, granting him a set of specific privileges under Magdeburg law to manage the village. The document was issued by komtur Giesebrecht von Dudulsheim. We can assume that it was at this time that the owner began the construction of a brick manor house set on a stone foundation, still visible today in the lower parts of the walls of our Pub and its hallway.
In the 14th century, both in Pomerania and throughout Europe, the Gothic style dominated architecture. The vaults typical of the churches and monasteries of that period were also used in secular construction, which is why the basement of our palace was built this way. A trace of this solution can be found to the right of the toilet entrance vis-a-vis the bar. The cellar remained in this "sacral" style until at least 1585, i.e. more than 200 years.
It is worth mentioning here that the role of cellars has basically not changed since then, or even before then. Wine and beer are still stored there, with the difference that nowadays these beverages are served in the cellars, while back then they were used primarily as storage. It was probably for this reason that the new owners decided to rebuild from 1585, replacing the Gothic vaulting with a cradle vault, the strength of which is based on the previously mentioned 14th century foundations. This type of vaulting allows for a considerable increase in loading capacity.
The bricks used to build the new vault came from the Netherlands, commonly referred to as 'Dutch' bricks. The Dutch used it
as ballast to add to their merchant ships when they were not fully loaded. In Danzig, as well as in other port cities where they called, the 'Olêders' disposed of the bricks for nothing and loaded the ships back up with destination goods. In Poland, this was usually grain,
wood, salt and ash to make soap. In addition to a lucrative deal, a Danzig merchant could also possess such bricks if he had somewhere to store them.
A lot of cellars in the area of Gdańsk were built with "Dutch" bricks, and at some point whole bourgeois houses, granaries and even church towers started to be built from them. In the centre of Gdańsk there are as many Dutch bricks as there are local bricks made in the city brickyards.
Such a cellar needed a practical entrance for horses with carts and, indeed, such an entrance existed here. A vestige of it is the arch over the toilet door vis-a-vis the bar, visible from inside it.
The size of the cellar did not change until 1741, when a flanking wing was added under the tenure of another noble and wealthy von Krockow family. This wing is located directly behind the bar. Today, we store wine in it, just as they did centuries ago.
In the space of the 'new' wing, the most striking feature is the stone wall, obviously part of the original 14th-century foundation. Note the size of the erratic boulders used in its construction and the illuminated brickwork by the wine cellar. This brick bears the stamp of a 19th-century brickworks operating in Mały Kack. "K.KATZ" or Klein Katz, which is the German version of the name Mały Kack.
Although the room dates from 1741, it was modernised in 1859 using such bricks.
At least until the outbreak of the Second World War, the cellar was used to store wine, beer and other goods that needed a dark and cool room. Between 1939 and 1945, the building was used by Gestapo troops and it is not yet known how the Nazis used the cellar. What we do know, however, is that the Palace building housed a high school from 1948 onwards. Alumni recollections show that at certain times the basement was inaccessible and at other times it housed cloakrooms, a canteen in the 1970s and a physical education room in the 1990s.
It would appear that some sort of Pub originated here half a century ago. It is interesting to note that, as part of the adaptation of the building for use as a school, all the basement walls were plastered and painted, making the authentic bricks from hundreds of years ago invisible. It was only during a major renovation for hotel purposes that the ancient walls and vaulting were exposed.
Being aware of this multicoloured history, a visit to our Pub takes on a whole new dimension and this is what we wish you - unforgettable moments spent among walls that have seen more than one.
Kacper Kubrynski