European Solidarity Centre, Gdansk

The European Solidarity Centre (Polish: Europejskie Centrum Solidarności) is a museum and library devoted to the history of Solidarity, the Polish trade union and civil resistance movement, and other opposition movements of Communist Eastern Europe.

Housed in a laboriously industrial-looking 21st-century hulk of architecture, the exhibition in this unmarked centre (finding the entrance here may prove a bit difficult) has quickly become one of the city's unmissables since opening in 2014. The design of the building evokes the hulls of ships built at the Gdańsk Shipyard.

The opening ceremony took place on 31 August 2014, on the anniversary of the signing of the Gdańsk Agreement, and was attended by Lech Wałęsa, the co-founder of Solidarity and later President of Poland.

The centre awards Medals of Gratitude to foreigners who assisted the Polish opposition to Communism. Its permanent collection has around 2,000 exhibits, and the library contains around 100,000 books and documents. The centre also houses a research and academic centre and conducts educational activities, as well as providing space for conferences and temporary exhibitions.