OHS room in Gdansk

Medals available for purchase in the souvenir shop!

The BHP Hall is an extraordinary historical site in Gdańsk. It is associated with events such as the August Strike, the signing of the August Agreements, and the birth of Solidarity.

It also remains one of the most important material symbols of the over 170-year-old tradition of shipbuilding in the city. By undertaking the task of rebuilding the Gdańsk Shipyard Memorial Hall, we achieve two parallel goals. The first is to preserve exhibits of exceptional cultural heritage significance for the history of shipbuilding in Gdańsk and the Shipyard itself, which, due to historical, legal, and economic changes, is disappearing from the landscape that constitutes the identity and heritage of both the Shipyard and the city of Gdańsk.

The historic BHP Hall is located in a 19th-century brick building that was renovated in 2006 and now serves as a year-round conference and exhibition center, as well as a museum. The owner of the Hall is the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity.”

Although today the BHP Hall is primarily a venue for meetings, conferences, panel discussions, and education, it has not lost its museum function. Visitors can view the exhibition Solidarity – Paths to Agreement, which showcases the history and ideals of Solidarity’s struggle for: freedom of speech and religion, the rule of law, equality, freedom, the dignity of labor, and the right to organize in defense of workers’ rights.

The BHP Hall was built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries during the reconstruction of the Imperial Shipyard. Initially, it served as a torpedo warehouse and assembly site for naval armaments for Prussia and the Third Reich. At that time, it was called Torpedo-Lagerhaus (literally “torpedo warehouse”)—an inscription that remains on the building’s walls to this day. The building acquired its current appearance only in the early 20th century. After the war, Gdańsk became fully a Polish city. In October 1947, Shipyard No. 1 (Danziger Werft) merged with Shipyard No. 2 (Schichau Werft) to adopt the name that still exists today: Gdańsk Shipyard. From 1967 to 1990, the shipyard was named after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and its industry was largely geared toward the Soviet maritime market.

The purpose of the BHP Hall changed only in 1961. On December 13, 1961, during the construction of the ship Maria Konopnicka, 22 workers died in the Shipyard. This tragic event directly influenced the change in the building’s function. Adapted for the needs of the Gdańsk Shipyard’s Cooperation Department, the building became a place for employee training.

August 1980 saw a wave of protests resulting from the peak of social dissatisfaction. The BHP Hall was the meeting place of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (MKS). It was here, on August 31, 1980, that Lech Wałęsa and Vice-Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Poland (1970–1981) Mieczysław Jagielski signed the most important of the August Agreements. Journalists witnessed this event, including Ryszard Kapuściński, who later said: “I don’t know if we all realize that, whatever else happens, since the summer of 1980, we have been living in a different Poland…” Today, every visitor to the BHP Hall can sit at the presidium table where Poland’s path to freedom began.

The BHP Hall has been visited by distinguished personalities such as Michel Platini, who came to Gdańsk during the UEFA Euro 2012 quarter-finals, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Richard von Weizsäcker, writers Günter Grass and Norman Davies, and composer Jean-Michel Jarre.