Central Maritime Museum, Gdańsk, Poland

The history of the museum dates back to 1960 when the Pomeranian Museum (now the National Museum) set up an independent branch under the name “Maritime Department”. Two years later this department became a separate institution based in the famous Zuraw Crane in Gdansk. The museum then took over several barns on Olowianka Island. Apart from these and the Wielki Zuraw Crane the other divisions are the Fisheries Museum in Hel, the River Vistula Museum in Tczew and two ships, SS Soldek and Dar Pomorza. The newest addition is the Centre of Maritime Culture.

The museums’ collections relate to the history of ports, shipbuilding, shipping and trade. Among them are historic examples of the craft of shipbuilding, salvage, ship fittings, navigational equipment, propulsion systems, handguns and deck cannons, etc. There are also interesting collections of models of Slavic boats, Gdansk’s medieval ships, warships from the 16th and 17th centuries, Polish merchant and passenger ships between 1920 and 1939 and river boats and tugs built after 1945. The collection also includes examples of vessels from Oceania, Indonesia and Africa. The museum houses art collections with a maritime theme.

References:

Poland Travel

Museums in Poland

User Reviews

t kol (9 months ago)
Very interesting museum. Quite a journey through 4 floors plus full size mid 20th century merchant ship. My kids found it all very interesting. The painting collection is not worth of time except few good pictures but the historical expositions are interesting and visually attractive. The only surprise was that the museum in November were almost empty and the staff looked at as as a delay before closing 4pm... Rededicloysly early on weekend considering how interesting it is. It deserves to be open until 8pm in my opinion.

iwona “IwonaD” (10 months ago)
Very interesting place, don't rush and take your time to explore

Женя Хмельницкий (13 months ago)
Good museum with lots of models, photos and archeological stuff. Look obsolete at a first glance though. They are updating the exhibition now, so could be better later. Not a lot of interaction and the ship near the museum is not fully available, only the deck. No audio guide and all descriptions are in Polish. But everything is almost clear without them.

Kayla Hamilton (14 months ago)
A great museum with a variety of artifacts and pantings. There was one portion of the museum with information written in English and a video with English subtitles. The staff was very nice as well.

Andrei Fara (15 months ago)
Lots of pictures and small ships (models). Really interesting for those passioned about maritime stuff. 4 star for nothing translated in english.

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