Plac Solidarnosci

Plac Solidarności - darkometer rating : 2 - The area outside the main gates to the Gdańsk shipyards, famous as the backdrop for crucial parts of the media coverage of the trade union movement Solidarność 's struggle for freedom in the 1980s. The square is dominated by a huge monument erected in 1980 in honour of the victims of the violently crushed strikes and demonstrations in 1970. Those were a precursor to the Solidarność movement in the 1980s that eventually led to the abolition of communism in Poland , the break-up of the entire Eastern Bloc and the end of the Cold War . > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The old shipyards of Gdańsk were at the forefront of Poland 's organized resistance movement of the 1980s; together with the steelworks in Kraków 's Nowa Huta – when both plants, incidentally, were named after Lenin . And they had been the site of resistance and strikes before; especially in 1956 and again in 1970, when the strikes and protests which was brutally crushed by the militia. But from 1980 onward the independent self-governing trade union that was given the name Solidarność became a key player here Through the media coverage of the strikes and demonstrations, the Solidarność logo became known worldwide as a symbol of resistance against communism . And the backdrop to much of the protests' footage was the shipyard's No. 2 Gate at what is today called Plac Solidarności – renamed in honour of those who eventually brought about those massive changes not only in Poland but in the whole of the Eastern Bloc . For more historical background and summaries of these developments see under European Solidarity Centre , Sala BHP and Old Gdańsk Shipyards .