European Solidarity Centre

Location:
European Solidarity Centre
Pl. Solidarności 1
80-863 Gdańsk
Poland

Contact:
Tel. +48 58 772 41 12
zwiedzanie[at]ecs.gda.pl

Opening Hours:
European Solidarity Centre
May until September
Daily 10 am - 8 pm

Archive 10 am - 6 pm

Library 11 am - 6 pm

www.ecs.gda.pl

Description: 

The European Solidarity Centre (ESC) is a museum devoted to the history of the Solidarność movement in Poland during the 1980s. However, ESC is also involved in contemporary civic and educational initiatives that refer to the heritage and idea of solidarity.

The mission of the ESC is to commemorate, maintain and popularise the heritage and message of the Solidarity movement and the anti-communist democratic opposition in Poland and throughout the world, as well as to inspire new cultural, civic, trade union, local government, national and European initiatives with a universal dimension, and to share the achievements of the peaceful struggle for freedom, justice, democracy and human rights with those who are deprived of them, as well as to actively take part in the building of the European identity and new international order.

On December 29, 1999, the Solidarity Centre Foundation was founded through the initiative of Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz, Gdańsk Metropolitan Archbishop Tadeusz Gocłowski, the Solidarity Trade Union, Gdańsk Shipyard and the government of the Pomorskie Voivodship along with the support of Lech Wałęsa and the Institute that bears his name. This led to the establishment of the Centre which started work in 2008 and which has been situated on the former shipyard grounds since 2014.

Cold War Interests: 

| The Cold War provides the context for the exhibition portraying the birth and development of the Solidarność movement. The geo-political tensions resulting from the Cold War are shown in the exhibition as important structural factors in shaping of the Polish dissident and anti-communist movement.

| The Social Thought Department at ESC is focused on conducting research on the history of the Solidarność movement, its ideals as well as today's social and political movements.

| Additionally, the ESC runs an archive of historical materials, records interviews with former dissidents, and manages a media centre and a scientific library.