Langgasse

In a mortgage deed from 1331, the longa platea (Latin for "long street") is mentioned as the oldest street name in the Main Town (Rechtstadt). The lane itself, however, likely already existed in the 13th century as the main thoroughfare of the German municipal community founded around 1260.

In the Middle Ages, the name Langgasse usually encompassed the Long Market (Langer Markt) as well. Only in the hereditary and ground-rent registers of the 17th century was a regular distinction drawn between the two. Until then, both were regarded as a single unit under the name Langgasse. Since the Second World War, the street has been called ul. Długa, thus retaining its old name translated into Polish.

As with the Brotbänkengasse, the part of the Long Market bordering the water was originally swampy lowland, which continued to pose considerable difficulties for construction. By 1331, a bridge over the Mottlau was already in place, since the granting of the tripe yard on Granary Island (Speicherinsel) to the Main Town's butchers' guild in that year presupposed a crossing extending the main street. The bridge is first mentioned in 1357; a gate building already stood for its protection at that time. After the seagoing cogs (medieval trading vessels) that sailed up the Mottlau to this point, the gate and bridge were called the Cog Gate (Koggentor) and Cog Bridge (Koggenbrücke). Only after the present gate structure was built in 1568 as a residence for the Polish kings did the name Green Gate (Grünes Tor) and Green Bridge come into use, derived from the formerly green paint on the sandstone articulations.

Of the fortifications at the opposite end of the Langgasse, the Stockturm (Prison Tower) is first mentioned in 1346. The defenses here were threefold: they consisted of the present Langgasse Gate, the Stockturm — which originally stood on the strip of land between the outer and inner moat — and the substructure of the present Peinkammer (Torture Chamber), which served as a bridgehead beyond the outer moat between it and the Stockturm, securing the crossing. The gate vault on the courtyard side of the building is still clearly visible today.

This entire complex was called the High Gate (Hohes Tor). The name first appears in 1378 in an ordinance concerning the safekeeping of gate keys. It does not refer to the structure's physical height but rather designates the gate leading to the elevated ground, in contrast to the Werder Gate leading down to the lowlands. When a new gate building — now housing the main guardhouse — was erected in front of the old one between 1586 and 1588 as part of the new rampart fortifications, the name High Gate passed primarily to this new structure, while the old inner gate, which received its new facade in 1612, became known as the Langgasse Gate.

The section of the Long Market between the Neptune Fountain and the Town Hall was also known, according to the historian Löschin, as the Piglet Market (Ferkelmarkt).