Poland wants birthplace of Solidarity inscribed on UNESCO list

The Gdańsk shipyard in northern Poland was a cradle of the Polish anti-Communist opposition movement.

Citizens of Gdańsk gather in front of the city’s shipyard in August 1980

Photo: European Solidarity Centre CC BY-SA 3.0 pl (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/pl/deed.en)

The yard rose to international fame in 1980, when it saw the birth of organised resistance to Communist dictatorship in Eastern Europe.

A strike by 17,000 workers lead to the rise of the Solidarity movement headed by then shipyard electrician Lech Wałęsa.

Solidarity was recognised as the first non-Communist trade union in the Soviet bloc.

Poland’s Culture and National Heritage Ministry now wants the Gdańsk shipyard to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Michał Owczarek talks to Magdalena Marcinkowska, deputy director of the ministry’s Monument Preservation Department.