The Solidarity museum had been recommended to me so I headed there this morning. The museum covers the rise of the Solidarity movement in the early 80s, which started from striking dockers and was instrumental in the fall of communism in Poland.
Before that I headed to the adjacent shipyard, that had been the start of it all. A lot of it is empty now; some parts have been redeveloped, others are still in use; there was a yacht builder and artists’ studios.
It turned out you could pay to climb the crane, so I did. The stairs were all metal mesh, so you could see right through them, which made the climb a bit unpleasant. The views from the top were excellent – you could see the parts of the shipyard that are still in use (these were over the other side of the water), and over to Gdansk
On the way over to the museum I walked past these two derelict pieces of what (I assume) was art/sculpture. Both looked in a sorry state; I wonder if they were from a previous attempt at redeveloping the area?
Outside the is an impressive monument to the workers who were killed in the earlier strikes in 1970:
The museum itself was really well done. The building (the rust coloured one in the 2nd picture above), is very impressive inside, and also holds a library and archive.
The museum told the story of the failed strikes in the 70s, the birth of the Solidarity movement in the 80s and its eventual electoral success, despite the state’s attempt to suppress it (including a period of martial law). It was well told, with a decent audio guide and a nice mix of exhibits and stills and videos. There was a clever mock-up of the round table discussions complete with period video cameras.
After all that history I fancied a lighter afternoon, so headed to the beach