Gdansk - Town of Memory and Freedom

I visited Gdansk in August 2020 after a detour to Gdynia which turned out to be a wise choice as the only huge traffic jams I encountered in Poland during the COVID-19 crisis were the several lanes from Torun or Warsaw towards Gdansk and the Baltic Sea. Having driven quite early to Gdynia avoiding the main roads, I luckily skipped all the traffic and on the way back to Gdansk, the traffic flow was fine. If you travel by car, there's ample paid parking spaces next to the Gdansk shipyard area or next to the European Solidarity Centre and you can pay using a credit card if you're short of zloty coins.

With a bit of prior preparation, I opted to visit solo and follow the 13 'sites' along the Imperial Shipyard Route to learn about the rich history of the once inaccessible imperial shipyard and the unique history of the Gdansk shipyard and the strike in August 1980 which made this area famous all over Europe (so much so that the place is marked as "Europe starts here") if not worldwide. Most of the shipyard is still pretty much operative and at times it feels a bit awkward to roam around freely in somebody's active workplace, but on the whole the workers seem to have got used to it. There are permanent exhibitions on Solidarnosc as well as temporary exhibitions which are changed every now and then. I particularly liked the robot invasion exhibition made up of mechanical …

When I told my colleagues that I was going to Gdansk for a long weekend, the conversation quickly veered off to Lech Walesa. We hadn’t heard from him in a long time. Had he died already? A quick Wikipedia search turned out he is alive and kicking, working the lucrative lecture circuit in the USA. His hometown is on Poland’s Tentative List under the label of Town of Memory and Freedom. Reminders of various periods in Gdansk’s history, starting from the Hanseatic era, are brought together under this flag. During my stay, I mainly focused on the part called the Gdańsk Shipyard associated with the emergence of the Solidarity movement, together with the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers.

To get to know that area and hear more about this period plus its current impact, I joined one of the daily “free” Solidarity walking tours. It’s a popular tour, over 30 people showed up from all over Scandinavia, Russia and Western Europe. We did not tour the old town which resembles Amsterdam without the canals. We explored its edges. We stopped for example at an unsightly parking lot, in front of the police station. It was here in 1970 that for the first time, Lech Walesa's name appeared in the books after a demonstration.

The guided walk puts places into the spotlight that on your own you would just pass by. We saw the first nightclub where rock music was played, a statue of a Polish king who …

Gdansk (or Danzig as it’s named in German) is your typical Baltic Sea hanseatic trading town in the mould of Wismar, Lübeck or Riga. The unfortunate distinction Gdansk has is that it suffered heavily at the end of World War 2. The Poles made great efforts rebuilding the city, but as soon as you venture a bit off the city core the gaps are noticeable and the quality of the buildings deteriorates.

The town is quite popular with tourists. Baltic Sea cruises will stop here for day trips. Even on a rainy and cold April evening the town was rather crowded. As pointed out by Bojana getting a restaurant table can be quite a challenge.

A bit North of the city center are the shipyards where the Solidarnosc movement started and the first cracks in the communist system started to show. You can visit a few of the historical places and a museum to get a grasp of what simple workers were able to achieve by means of peaceful protest and strikes.

OUV

Looking at the history of the site with Unesco it feels like Poland already decided to make it a former tentative site, but never handed in the paperwork. If you get a negative review the first time and then ask not to be examined the second time, inscription chances look very slim.

I do agree with Ian that the subject of Baltic Sea hanseatic trading town is already well covered by sites …

Gdansk is a wonderful city, in which I would like to live, especially along the river, between the crane and the nicely renovated medieval city center. Even with the cold weather (down to -13), the best locals (pubs and clubs) are always full and it's hard to get a table if you did not book before. People from all parts of northern Europe: Germans, Norwegians, Swedes and Finns visit this city. Good beer or vodka cost only 2 euros on average.

Well I guess Gdansk's WHS aspirations are the victim of other sites success. I doubt this will get a place on the list, not because it is undeserving, but mostly because others have beat it to it. Warsaw already has its listing for its near total rebuilding after the Second World War, so Gdansk dips out there. There are plenty of Baltic trading cities already inscribed so Gdansk won't bring anything new to the table there.

It is a shame that Gdansk probably won't get a place of the elite list as it really is a very impressive city. The rebuilding of the city centre is very thorough. I found walking around it is much more impressive than some of the already inscribed similar sites (Lübeck for example). Not only is it a city of distinct vintage it also has a wealth of modern history, from its role in the start of WWII through to the heroic actions of the Solidarity unions at the shipyards, which were played an immense part in the collapse of communism in Poland and beyond. It is also a city with a lovely atmosphere, I really enjoyed wandering around, hopping between bars and restaurants.

I would certainly recommend a trip to Gdansk. It may not be a tick off the World Heritage List, however it is yet another charming European city where whiling away time strolling the streets and sampling the local delicacies was extremely rewarding.

[Site 7: Experience 7]