There is only one city like Gdańsk. Others can be only similar. It’s extraordinary location and over one thousand years of history distinguish Gdańsk and give it a robust and established position in Europe. It is also a city with many a mystery and that special “something” that makes it impossible to confuse it with any other.
The beginnings of Gdańsk date back to 980. Shortly before Easter 997 a bishop from Bohemia appeared here, the missionary Wojciech, also known as Adalbert. Shortly thereafter he was martyred by the pagan Prussians, and his life and death was recorded by John Canaparius, a Benedictine monk at the Aventine monastery in Rome. It was John that first recorded the words urbs Gydannyzc that referred to Gdańsk where the future saint was said to have baptised a great number of converts. This is the first mention of Gdańsk, the city by the River Motława.
Today’s Gdańsk is a modern European metropolis with a knowledge-based economy, a thriving centre of culture, science, entertainment and sport, an attractive tourist destination and the World Capital of Amber.
There would be no Gdańsk without freedom. Courage, freshness, but most of all freedom. This is a true Gdańsk tradition. The virtue of freedom that has been the most valued by Gdańskers over the centuries has determined the city’s unique genius loci. You can feel it among the Old Town townhouses and between the shipyard cranes of the Young Town; on its beautiful sandy beaches and its post-industrial halls, in its parks and tunnels: in Gdańsk, freedom is everywhere, you can almost touch it. It inspires and transforms both the space and the people. This is what Gdańskers are like: brave, committed, passionate and creative. This is what today’s Gdańsk is all about: open to new ideas, in touch with the times, setting trends, ever surprising.
European Solidarity Centre
The European Solidarity Centre is a state-of-the-art cultural institution that honours our greatest civic success—the victorious Solidarity movement. It is a museum that commemorates the revolution of Solidarity and the fall of communism in Europe, but it is also an educational, research and academic centre, an archive, library and multimedia library. The building was opened on the 25th anniversary of Poland’s regaining of its freedom and the 34th anniversary of the signing of the August Agreements in the former Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk.