inspiring gdańsk shipyard

It’s one of my favourite spots in Gdańsk. Once a place of important historical events, now the decaying post-industrial space which ignites the imagination of artists.

Gdańsk Shipyard is situated on the left side of Martwa Wisła river and on Ostrów Island. It was built in 1945 on the sites of former German shipyards, which were damaged during the Second World War. The yard gained international fame when Solidarity (Solidarność) was founded in September 1980. It was the first non-communist trade union in the Soviet Bloc.

The person who is most famously associated with the Shipyard is the leader of Solidarity, and later the President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, who led the strikes of 17 thousand ship builders. The move greatly contributed to the eventual collapse of communism across Eastern Europe. 

Nowadays the place is barely used for building ships. Most of the companies went bankrupt. The historical buildings, with few exceptions, are empty. One of the buildings is used as studios for Gdańsk artists, like Iwona Zając, Maciej Salamon or Michał Szlaga. They all agree that the Shipyard is a very inspirational place, which can be easily noticed in their artpieces.

Currently there is an enormous investment taking place – European Solidarity Centre, which will be a museum and conference place. A project waiting to be built here is Young City (Młode Miasto), a development of new flats, shops and restaurants. It is surely going to be beautiful, however I enjoy the Shipyard the way it is nowadays. Some may find it gloomy, but I find it mysterious and... addictive!

 

If you want to see the Shipyard the way it looks in these pictures, I urge you to go there as soon as possible, as we don’t really know when it will cease to exist in its current state. 

To visit historical spots with a guide, take the Subjective Bus Line. A trip in an old-fashioned bus will take you back to the communist era.

text& photography © Natalia Wiśniewska