[1] Old Polish sayings connect Toruń with making of some form of gingerbread, and the expansion of the craft, which started in the 13th century.

In the 16th century, the Cistercian Order on the outskirts of Toruń prospered mainly due to this activity and even sold their product to other countries.

In 1875 the Toruń Gazette (Gazeta Toruńska) wrote on New Year's Eve that due to the demand it was even sold in Africa.

Gustav Weese sold it in January 1939 to the Polish company "Społem" and left for his other gingerbread factory in Germany.

[10] Other notables who have received gift gingerbread from the city include Marie Casimire Louise (French princess and widow of King John III Sobieski), Napoléon Bonaparte (during whose visit the whole city was illuminated and bells were rung all over the city), Zygmunt Krasiński (one of Poland's Three Bards), painter Jan Matejko, actress Helena Modjeska, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, pianist Artur Rubinstein, poet Czesław Miłosz, Lech Wałęsa and Pope John Paul II.

A 17th-century epigram by poet Fryderyk Hoffman speaks of the four best things in Poland: "The vodka of Gdańsk, Toruń gingerbread, the ladies of Kraków, and the Warsaw shoes".

When the precocious 15-year-old composer Frédéric Chopin visited Szafarnia, a small village near the river Drwęca, he stopped over in Toruń, where he was a guest of his godfather, the penologist Fryderyk Florian Skarbek.

Chopin sampled the city's famous confection and grew so fond of it that he wrote a letter about it to his friends and colleagues.