European Solidarity Centre
Photo: Own work — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, Poland, is a museum and library dedicated to the history of the Solidarity movement and other opposition movements in Eastern Europe. Opened on 31 August 2014, it features a permanent exhibition with around 2,000 exhibits and a library containing approximately 100,000 books and documents.
Planning your visit
Solidarity began in the Gdańsk shipyard in August 1980, when an electrician named Lech Wałęsa climbed the fence to join a strike over the dismissal of a crane operator. Within weeks it had become a trade union of ten million people — a quarter of the population — and within a decade the communist system across Eastern Europe had collapsed.
The European Solidarity Centre stands beside the shipyard gates, in a building of weathering steel meant to evoke a ship's hull under construction. The permanent exhibition covers the strike, martial law and the underground years, the round table talks and 1989, with around 2,000 objects — including the plywood boards on which the twenty-one demands were written, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
Gate No. 2, where Wałęsa announced the agreement, is directly outside.
Allow two to three hours. Bookable options include private communism tours with the centre. Current availability is listed below.
Before you book
Where is European Solidarity Centre?
European Solidarity Centre is in Gdańsk, Poland. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for European Solidarity Centre?
Allow two to three hours. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book European Solidarity Centre in advance?
Private tours are arranged for a set date and time, so they need booking in advance.
