European Solidarity Centre
THREE CROSSES MONUMENT, SOLIDARITY MUSEUM


The Solidarity Museum is a museum just to the North of the city center. It is dedicated to the Solidarity movement, that was created by the former shipyard worker Lech Walesa. Here you also find the Three Crosses Monument (also called the "Solidarity Monument") at Solidarity Square, that symbolizes the workers struggle and is a memorial for the ones who died during the strikes. The Solidarity movement (Solidarnosc) was created by Walesa to protest against the poor working conditions for the workers at the Lenin Shipyard (today Gdansk Shipyard) in the early 1970s. In 1980 the big strikes at the shipyard led to protests all over Eastern Europe, and finally lead to the fall of the communist regime in Poland. Solidarity later became a political party, with Lech Walesa as a leader. Between 1990 and 95 he became the president of Poland.

 

THREE CROSSES MONUMENT and SOLIDARITY SQUARE:


Three Crosses Monument, or Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers 1970, and the Solidarity Museum at the Solidarity Square (Plac Solidarnosci). The monument is made of three tall crosses, 42m and weighing 36 tons each, made by the shipyard workers, with an anchor on top of each of them. It was unveiled in 1980, after the protests that led to the fal of the communist regime.

  

Plagues with names of people who were killed in 1970, Three Crosses MonumentBas-relief with scenes from the lifes of the shipyard workers, Three Crosses Monument


Three Crosses Monument is a tall monument at the Solidarity Square, commemorating the victims of the strike.

  

Foot of the MonumentFootprint of former pope John Paul II

 

 
Three Crosses Monument   Three Crosses Monument   Three Crosses Monument, Plac Solidarnosci

 

STOCZNIA GDANSKA SHIPYARD AND THE SOLIDARITY MUSEUM:


Entrance to the Gdansk Shipyard (Stocznia Gdanska), and European Solidarity Centre. It was called the Lenin Shipyard during the protests.

 

At the Solidarity HQ

 


European Solidarity Centre (Europejskie Centrum Solidarności).This futuristic 5-storey buildin houses a permanent exhibition about Solidarity and the opposition, that led to the democratic transformation of Eastern Europe, as well as a library, conference rooms and reading rooms. The structure is built with rust-coloured sheet metal remnisent of a ship's hull, has a design that resembles walls that are cracking and tilting. It opened on August 30 2014, just a few weeks before our visit! The admission is free to the museum.

  

European Solidarity Centre (ESC)

Monument to the third international, a remnant from the communist time, used in the "Roads to Freedom" exhibition.


Wintergarden and atrium of European Solidarity Centre, a really futuristic building with rust-coloured elements, glass elevators, large and small atriums and escalators.

  

Atrium of European Solidarity Centre

Glass elevators in the atrium


Wintergarden and atrium of European Solidarity Centre, free and open for public

  

Another, smaller atrium with skybridges and rust-coloured, tilted metal walls

 

THE SOLIDARITY (ESC) EXHIBITION:

The exhibition about the Solidarity movement and the opposition that lead to the fall of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. With photographs, film, 3D projections and other state-of-the-art technology, as well as stuff and vehicles that were used during the strikes the history is shown in an interesting way in the ESC Building

 
    1970 strike    

 
Helmets of the workers   Jacek Kuron's desk, where the info about the strike was spread to the media   Interrogation room of Security Services, that surveilled and broke down the anticommunist opposition

 
        Three Crosses Monument from ESC

 
Rock bands that supported the Solidarity movement   Rock bands that supported the Solidarity movement   Strike in Warsaw

 
Armoured Milicja (state police) truck that captured strikers   Armoured Milicja (state police) truck that captured strikers    

 
Skybridges over narrow atriums through the sections       Panorama elevator, atrium

 
TV studio   Swedish TV channel    

 
         

 
Old Lada, Milicja (state police) car   Pope John Paul II supported the strikes   Outside the Solidarity building

 

Stocznia Gdanska Shipyard, just a short walk from the city center, seen from the train. This is where the famous strikes that led to Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement and the fall of the communism regime took place in 1970 and 1980.

 


"Roads to Freedom" exhibition was an exhibition that was precursor to the current Solidarity exhibiton in the brand new ESC building, but there are still parts left. Milicja (state police) tank at one of the main roads, Podwale Grodzkie.

  

"Roads to Freedom" exhibition

Milicja tank and the Zieleniak highrise