Through delivering the Word of God, St. Adalbert converted and baptised many pagans and began in this place his far mission into the pagan Prussia, ended with his martyrdom. In 999, an unknown Pomeranian transported his body from the hill to Gniezno.
In its initial shape, the church was built in the 14th Century, with a tower added 100 years later. However, the darkest times came in 1537, when the church with the Benedictine monastery was damaged by a great fire. The whole building was reconstructed thanks to the efforts of Bishop Stanisław Karnkowski.
The most valuable element of the church interior is the main altar with a large painting of St. Adalbert in its central part – a priceless gift from King John III Sobieski. Inside the church there is a unique ceiling, covered with round stones resembling clouds, with the Lamb of God in the middle, surrounded by golden stars and bells.
Each year in April on St. Adalbert’s Hill there is a church fair in honour of St. Adalbert, the Patron of Gdańsk. Each time the fair has its own historical context; the main themes of the previous fairs were, i.a., the millennium celebrations of the Saint’s death and canonisation, the year of the Great Jubilee of 2000 years from the Birth of Jesus Christ, and the death of John Paul II. The fair begins in the Basilica of Our Lady, the starting point of the pilgrimage with the relics of St. Adalbert and, on the hill, there is a Mass with the participation of the priests and Bishops of the Archdiocese of Gdańsk.
