DANZICA (GDANSK, DANZIG), Diocese of. — Established in 1925, immediately subject to the Apostolic See. First bishop: Edward O'Rourke. In a letter of 1148, Eugenius III, defining the boundaries of the Diocese of Włocławek (Władysławia or Kujavia), mentions within the latter «castrum Gedanum in Pomerania». D. was the seat of the archdeaconry of Pomerania in the Diocese of Włocławek until 1818. From 1818 to 1824 it was the seat of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pomerania. In 1824, by the bull *De salute animarum* of Pius VII, the archdeaconry of Pomerania was incorporated into the Diocese of Chełmno (Culma). Since 1945 it has been an Apostolic Administration.
Area: 1,926 sq. km.; population: 275,000, of whom: Catholics 265,000; parishes 56; churches 85. Diocesan priests 61; regular priests 40; religious women 94; priests from other dioceses 46; seminarians 17. Religious houses: male 8, female 18 (1948).
Notable churches: St. John’s (1214); Dominican fathers (1226); St. Catherine’s (1227–29); Our Lady’s (1343–1503); royal chapel founded by King Jan Sobieski in 1681. D. was the birthplace of Jan Dantyszek (Dantiscus, 1485–1548), bishop of Warmia; and Jan Hevelius (1611–87), astronomer. At Oliwa stands the Cistercian abbey founded in 1173.
D., the principal port at the mouth of the Vistola (Wisła), belonged to Poland from the 11th century. In 1308, after the massacre perpetrated by the Teutonic Order of the Crossbearers, in which 10,000 inhabitants perished, the city passed under their rule; it returned to Poland in 1454. After the second partition of Poland in 1793 it passed to Prussia. Erected as a Free City with a small surrounding territory by the League of Nations in 1919–20 and incorporated into Germany in 1939, it reverted to Poland in 1945.