Description of the attraction
The Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk is a national museum whose mission is to collect and preserve items related to shipbuilding and Polish maritime history.
In 1958, at the initiative of the Association of Friends of the Sea and Associate Professor Przemislav Smolyarek, an exhibition on marine themes was opened. Two years later (in October 1960) an independent Pomeranian Museum (now the Maritime Museum) was opened in Gdansk. The aim of the founders was a port museum located in the heart of the old port of Gdansk in a typical harbor structure. Currently, the Maritime Museum is located in several buildings at once in the city center. It occupies three granaries in the port with lifting port gates, and also has branches: the Fisheries Museum, two sailing ship museums and the Vistula Museum.
The first director and one of the founders and founders of the National Maritime Museum was Przemislav Smolarek, who held this position from 1960 until his death in 1991. Another director was Andrei Zbierski, who retired in 2001. The current director is Jerzy Litvin, who was appointed in 2001 after winning a competition.
In October 1972, the museum received the status of a national institution, after which it was transferred to the Ministry of Culture.
The collection of the Maritime Museum tells about the history of shipbuilding. Among the exhibits are fragments of ship equipment, navigational instruments, naval weapons, models of medieval ships, river ships. Of particular interest to visitors is the collection of items recovered from sunken ships.
