Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, 10am-5pm; Wednesday, 10am-4pm; Thursday-Saturday, 10am-5pm, Sunday 11am-5pm; in summertime (June-August), closed Monday, open Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, 11am-6pm, Wednesday, 10am-4pm, Friday, 10am-5pm, Sunday, 11am-5pm.
The Historical Museum of the City of Gdansk was opened in the restored Gothic and Renaissance building of the Main Town Hall of the City of Gdansk in 1970. Over time the Museum has acquired other historical buildings to house its other departments. These include the Westerplatte Guardhouse no. 1, famous as a site of heroic defence at the outbreak of World War II in 1939; the Wisloujscie Fort - fortifications dating from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, a worldwide rarity and Poland's only preserved sea fort; the Uphagen House, now the Museum of Burgher Interiors; the Artus Court; the Prison Tower and Torture Chamber, at present the Jailing Museum; and the "Na Zamurzu" Tower, nowadays the Museum of Sports. In 1996 the Museum opened its Department of Tower Clocks inside the tower of St. Catherine of Alexandria church, the oldest parish church in Gdansk. This is where Poland's only concert carillon is kept.
The Town Hall building has a History Section with a collection of documents related to the city and region of Gdansk as well as of standards of political organizations, bottles used by Gdansk pharmacists, packaging used by Gdansk companies, post stamps and other objects. The Art Section displays paintings, sculptures, furniture, items made by goldsmiths, pewterers, potters and weavers as well as military objects from Gdansk, Pomerania and Northern Europe, ranging in date from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Of particular value is the preserved decoration of the Town Hall interiors. The Great (Red) Council Room, the Small (Winter) Council Room, the City Treasury, the Small Court Room, the Fireplace Room, the Great Hall, the former chapel and the archive are decorated with Gothic and Renaissance frescos, paintings by Jan Vredemann de Vries, Izaak van den Block and Beniamin Schmidt from the late sixteenth, early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, respectively. The furnishings include sculpted benches, iron (one Gothic, the other Renaissance) safes, beautifully decorated fireplaces, portals and doors, wrought iron grills, etc. In addition to the original furnishings, the Town Hall rooms feature Renaissance and Baroque cupboards, tables, chests and chairs.
The Town Hall exhibitions include "Metalwork by the Gdansk Masters of the Sixteenth through Eighteenth Century" (silver tableware, lithurgical vessels, pewter containers, wrought iron items); "The Gdansk Mint" (coins and notes, orders, medals, distinctions) and the first part of the Gdansk: "A Millennium of History exhibition".
Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Gdańska
ul. Długa 46/47
80-831 Gdańsk
Region: pomorskie
Phone: (+48 58) 767 91 00
Fax: (+48 58) 767 91 02
WWW: www.mhmg.gda.pl
Email: kancelaria@mhmg.pl