Ośrodek Kultury Morskiej, Gdańsk

At the entrance, you have reached Ośrodek Kultury Morskiej, a museum in Gdańsk. This is the National Maritime Museum’s education-focused branch, created in 2012 where the former Colonial Collection building had stood. Its permanent exhibition “People, Ships, Ports” invites you into maritime themes, while “Boats of the Peoples of the World” brings together vessels from distant parts of the world.

Inside, a water tank lets remote-controlled models demonstrate how ships respond during manoeuvres. Other installations explore cargo handling and harbour work, turning the port from a familiar waterfront scene into a chain of skills, labour, and decisions. This branch belongs to an institution founded on the first of January 1962.

Its wider work safeguards and studies objects and records tied to shipping, boatbuilding, fishing, seafaring communities, and Poland’s maritime past. The museum began in the medieval Crane, then grew across Gdańsk and beyond; here, that broad story becomes something you can actively explore.