The Solidarity Heritage Institute has opened a new premises in the centre of Gdańsk – the city of Solidarity. The purchase of the building at 8 Targ Drzewny Street was funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MKiDN).

“I am convinced that many valuable initiatives will be born here that will nurture the memory of Solidarity’s achievements, help remember the people who built the foundations of Polish freedom and celebrate in the world the peaceful revolution initiated by the social protest in the Gdańsk Shipyard in August 1980”, said Jarosław Sellin, Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, during the opening of the Institute’s new premises.

The Gdansk office of the Solidarity Heritage Institute will be able to host smaller temporary exhibitions as well as meetings of Solidarity communities and non-governmental organisations. All people interested in the history of Solidarity will be able to access the latest IDS publications. The Institute will also make its collections available to scholars and students as well as promote Solidarity’s heritage to foreign visitors.

The building of the Institute’s current premises was built in the 1970s. In communist times, it was part of the so-called “Press House” where the Workers’ Publishing Cooperative “Prasa-Książka-Ruch” operated. Near the building, at the monument to King Jan III Sobieski, demonstrations were held (one of them during the “Solidarity” uprising during the December 1970 events). On 3 May 1981, a banner – “We demand the implementation of the agreements”, referring to the August Agreements of 1980, was hung over the ground floor windows of the building, as well as posters with the slogans: “Freedom” and “Truth”.

The Solidarity Heritage Institute was established in 2019 under an agreement between the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity”.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński