Square
Long Market and Neptune's Fountain
Gdańsk, Poland
Gdańsk's grandest street, lined with tall merchant houses and anchored by the town hall and Neptune's Fountain...
Museum · Poland · Pomerania
European Solidarity Centre
A museum at the shipyard on the Solidarity movement that helped end communist rule in Poland.
Paid entry about 2.5 h
For storytellers
Why European Solidarity Centre matters
In August 1980, shipyard workers in Gdańsk went on strike and, against the odds, forced the communist government to recognise Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc. This museum tells the story with posters, documents, a reconstructed shipyard hall and a lot of personal voices. It is moving and surprisingly hopeful, and it helps explain how the Cold War order began to change.
Talking points
- Solidarity was the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc.
- The building stands beside the historic shipyard gate.
Free to read aloud or adapt in your video. Check facts that matter to you against an official source before you publish.
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