Muzeum Miasta Gdyni

The new seat of the Gdynia City Museum is a modern bright sandstone building located where the sea and land meet. It was opened by the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński during a ceremony that took place on 16th November 2007. This event ended Gdynia’s long struggle for a suitable place to present its past or a place where generations could exchanges thoughts, experiences and dreams. The idea of setting up a municipal museum in Gdynia was born among the local elite in the 60s of the 20th century. Its activity and determination resulted in the City Public Library setting up the City History Documentation Department which was located in the historic house from the early 20th century in 30 Starowiejska Street, in which a Kashubian activist and a Polish patriot Antoni Abraham lived for several years.

For 14 years, researchers and enthusiasts of the project gathered exhibits: photographs, postcards, documents on social life, posters, plans, maps and works of art, which became the basis of the collection for the Gdynia City Museum which the Mayor founded on 1st January 1983. Its management’s office was located in Starowiejska Street, in the so-called Abraham’s house.

The warehouse and exhibition facilities were located in the former Gdynia’s artists’ exhibition pavilion in 21 Waszyngtona Street, where the Gemini Leisure Centre is today. The time when the Museum waited for its new building was spent organizing exhibitions and events, extending the collections and, above all, building lasting, strong relations with the local community. Tens of thousands of objects gathered in the Museum are a source of knowledge about the past and today’s life of the city, which constantly fascinates tourists and makes new generations of its inhabitants proud.