European Solidarity Centre

The European Solidarity Centre (Europejskie Centrum Solidarności) stands at plac Solidarności 1 in Gdańsk, in the Pomeranian region of Poland, beside the historic Gdańsk Shipyard. It opened in 2014 in a rust-coloured steel building, designed by Fort Architects, whose form evokes a ship's hull and the shipyard's weathered steel. The permanent exhibition covers the Solidarity movement from the Polish People's Republic of the 1970s through the strikes of August 1980, the creation of the independent trade union, martial law of December 1981 and the roundtable talks and elections of 1989. It is organised chronologically and thematically across large halls, using original objects, documents, photographs and film. Among the best-known exhibits are the shipyard's Gate No. 2 board with its original sign, the plywood boards on which the 21 demands of the strikers were written, a reconstruction of a communist-era queue and shop, and the telephone and typewriters used by the movement. Visitors can also see a re-created shipyard hall and a preserved Fiat 126p and everyday objects that show life under communism. Interactive screens, multimedia stories and oral testimonies by participants provide an immersive element. The building also houses a library, an archive of the movement, a roof garden and temporary exhibitions that link Solidarity to later freedom movements in Europe. The Centre is a leading institution for memory of the events that preceded the end of communism in Central Europe. The exhibition takes about two hours with the audio guide or the multimedia stations, and the site is part of the Road to Freedom trail across the shipyard.