A Day at the Museum
Planning to spend a day exploring? Discover Pomerania’s leading museum and its different branches
Gdańsk City Centre and the Former Shipyard Area
A Day of Medieval and Early Modern Art
You’re in for a pleasant stroll through the Main Town. Start your visit near Gdańsk Śródmieście railway station, where the Medieval and Early Modern Art Department is located at 1 Toruńska Street. This is where the Gdańsk City Museum was established in 1870 in a former Franciscan monastery, laying the foundations for today’s National Museum in Gdańsk. Its multifaceted history helps explain the museum’s rich collection of decorative arts and crafts, particularly from Gdańsk and northern Europe.
In the museum’s main building, you’ll walk through a historic cloister with an exit onto the cloister garden, stopping along the way at the Goldsmithing, Pewter and Ceramics Galleries. On the first floor, you’ll find the permanent exhibition Pious and Virtuous: Gdańsk citizens of the past in the mirror of art and an exhibition space where temporary exhibitions of prints and drawings from the museum’s collection are presented under the title Eight and a Half Weeks.
Our most valuable work is currently unavailable to visitors. Advanced research and documentation of Hans Memling’s The Last Judgement triptych will continue until early 2027.
The Green Gate
The next stop on your day out is the Green Gate, which marks the end of Długi Targ (Long Market) on the Motława River. It is one of our museum branches and hosts interesting temporary exhibitions featuring art in a variety of media and from different periods.
Currently on view are works by the Cooper & Gorfer duo, known for their groundbreaking approach to portraiture and for combining photography with painting, textiles, collage and video, as well as surrealist collages and photomontages by the acclaimed Polish artist Zofia Rydet.
A Day of Contemporary Art
Near Plac Solidarności (Solidarity Square), on the former grounds of the Gdańsk Shipyard, you’ll find two of our departments: NOMUS – New Art Museum and the Gdańsk Gallery of Photography. This is a must-see if contemporary art is one of your interests.
At NOMUS, we present the collection of contemporary art in different formats and contexts. At its core is the Gdańsk Contemporary Art Collection, assembled by the City of Gdańsk and held on deposit by the National Museum in Gdańsk. The collection consists primarily of works by local artists, particularly attuned to the challenges of the contemporary world.
Oliwa – a charming Gdańsk neighbourhood off the beaten track
Oliwa Park: the Abbots’ Granary, the Abbots’ Palace and the Gallery of Contemporary Gdańsk Sculpture
It’s time to venture into another part of Gdańsk. If you want to feel like a true local, you have to discover Oliwa Park and its hidden treasures.
The first of these is the Ethnography Department, housed in the historic Abbots’ Granary. It hosts temporary exhibitions exploring the culture of Pomerania, as well as different regions of the world and various aspects of cultural anthropology. The museum garden has long been the setting for the Summer Ethnographic Fair, as well as a range of cultural events that bring audiences together.
The permanent exhibition explores different aspects of the culture and everyday life of the region’s inhabitants at the turn of the 20th century. Our team works with folk artists and craftspeople, contemporary artists, and researchers from Poland and abroad.
The museum’s Modern Art Department is housed in the historic Abbots’ Palace, the former residence of the Cistercian abbots in Oliwa. Surrounded by a park laid out in the French and English styles, the palace provides a setting for art ranging from the 19th century to the latest artistic developments.
You can currently see the exhibition Olga Boznańska and… 19th- and Early 20th-Century Polish Painting from the Collection of the National Museum in Gdańsk. It brings together a unique collection of paintings from the turn of the 20th century, including works by artists whose contribution has become a lasting part of the canon of Polish national art and which have not been shown to the public for many years.
The Abbots’ Palace is also home to the Theatre Department, whose collection includes costumes, archival photographs of theatre productions, and costume and set design sketches.
The current exhibition, inspired by the work of set designer Zofia de Ines and the Theatre of Expression founded by Wojciech Misiuro, invites visitors to reflect on the social and artistic role of costume.
Oliwa Park is also home to the outdoor Gallery of Contemporary Gdańsk Sculpture, which is part of the department. The gallery was established in 1976. The sculptures in Oliwa Park were created by renowned artists associated with the Polish coast and Gdańsk’s art academy, who were given complete freedom to choose their subjects, materials and forms.
This freedom accounts for the diversity of the gallery, which continues to surprise visitors to this day. You will find inspiration here in both realistic representations and abstract art. References to mythology, the Bible and historical events are also common.
The sculptures were made by women and men artists in bronze, stone – granite and sandstone – as well as plastic and ceramic stoneware. The artists also chose where their sculptures would be placed.
The contemporary forms of the works have given a new character to the historic Oliwa Park, which was established and shaped by the Cistercians who resided in Oliwa.
A Trip Outside the City
Museum of Polish Nobility in Waplewo Wielkie
In Powiśle, in the village of Waplewo Wielkie (around 14 km from Sztum and 25 km from Malbork), you’ll find a historic palace surrounded by a beautiful park. Once the residence of the Sierakowski family, it is one of the most valuable historic landed estates in northern Poland. Today, it is home to a branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk – the Museum of Polish Nobility. Here, you can explore the historic interiors of the manor house, the former farm buildings and the park. Historic furniture, family memorabilia and old photographs evoke everyday life in manor houses, which served as economic and cultural centres of rural communities, while also telling the story of the Polish nobility.
In the restored coach house, you can see the exhibition The Travelling Nobleman. The coach house is one of the many farm buildings that once belonged to the estate of the wealthy Sierakowski counts. The exhibits on display offer an insight into what accompanied a landowner on everyday journeys as well as longer trips.
Twice a year, the museum hosts the Pomeranian Chopin Days, commemorating Fryderyk Chopin’s visit to the Sierakowski estate. It is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy Chopin’s music in beautiful surroundings, as well as contemporary jazz.
Museum of the National Anthem in Będomin
In the village of Będomin, around 8 km from Kościerzyna, surrounded by a historic park, you’ll find the National Museum in Gdańsk’s second branch outside the city – the Museum of the National Anthem. It is housed in a historic noble manor where Józef Wybicki, the author of the lyrics to the Polish national anthem, Dąbrowski’s Mazurka, was born.
Through educational sessions, workshops and a variety of outdoor events and picnics, you can learn more about the history of Poland’s national anthem while having a great time. The museum presents two exhibitions: The Story of Dąbrowski’s Mazurka and Józef Wybicki and His Times.
A visit to this museum is a valuable history lesson, offering an insight into the life and work of the author of the Polish national anthem, Poland’s struggle to regain independence, the establishment of the state during the period of the Second Polish Republic (including the reintroduction of national symbols), and the role of the anthem during the Second World War, under the communist regime, and during the strikes organised by Solidarity.
Both branches are welcoming and engaging places for families with children. So, if you’re planning a day trip out of the city, make sure to stop by Waplewo Wielkie or Będomin.
