To be in Gdansk and not have time to go to the sea – is it possible? Absolutely! You can get to know the city from the street art. In this article, I will prove it. There are three areas of urban art in Gdansk – the ZASPA district, the area of 100cznia, and… the rest of the city. 😉 How should you explore it? There are propositions below. Enjoy!

I visit Gdansk on average once a year. Despite being a hardly touristic city, I rarely walk along the main routes. There are two reasons for that. The first is the friends I have there, who make sure I wander around the locals’ places. The second reason is street art! In this post, I share with you my way of exploring this beautiful city.

Gdańsk Street Art (without ZASPA) —>  GOOGLE MAP

The ZASPA suburb

Let’s start with one of the most famous mural neighborhoods in Poland. This is the quarter located on the former airport grounds next to the sea. From above, the blocks are arranged in a honeycomb, but from the ground’s perspective, it is just a huge agglomeration of blocks.

To make this place better-looking, it was decided to use the walls of the buildings and create the Monumental Painting Collection here. The collection currently includes 59 large-format murals and 19 arrangements of cage entrances (source: HERE). The Monumental Painting Collection is connected with the Monumental Art Festival, Gdansk School of Mural, and Local Guides. You can read more about these projects here.

The first works of the Collection were created in 1997. On the walls you will find murals created by artists from all over the world and a variety of artistic styles – classical wall painting, figurative painting, graphic art, conceptual art, historical painting, and decorative art.

Visiting this place is easy-peasy. All you have to do is to download the PDF with the guide and map from the Murale Gdansk Zaspa website. There is also a map available on Google Maps. If it isn’t enough, the local guides occasionally organize walks around here. So, when you get a chance to take part in such a walk, don’t think twice! No one will tell you about the city like the locals.

I have visited ZASPA several times already and every time I didn’t have enough time to explore. So, if you are there for the first time, set a side a minimum of 3 hours to walk around. There is no need to rush. Photos are not always easy to take, as it is quite cramped between the blocks. You have to combine a bit and it takes some time.

The 100cznia and its surroundings

To get to the second area I want to recommend to you, you have to go under the one of the most interesting bridge I have ever seen. .You will find here interesting paintings on the pillars. There is also a lovely mural created by a Polish cartoonist. And this is just the beginning of exploring street art!

The Gdansk Shipyard, or rather the events that took place here, were extremely important for Poland’s industry and European history. Here communism collapsed and Poland’s democracy came back.

However, over time, the shipyard met up with financial problems related to its profitability. Because of that the shipyard grounds began to be used for purposes other than heavy industry. One of the great examples of alternative use is the 100cznia project. It is the space created by a pair of urban activists, Ala Jablonowska and Kuba Lukaszewski. It works properly in the summer. This is a space with concerts, alternative events, food trails, pubs, and art!

And when I say art, I am thinking about street art! At the area of the 100cznia in the abandoned halls, you can find a large-format graffiti gallery Layup. There is also a hall of fame here. But art doesn’t like limits, so you’ll find stickers, stencils, and other wonders all over the shipyard. The place is amazing, so I am mad at myself that I haven’t exploited so far. I promise myself that it will change this summer!

Interestingly, there is the story of the STIK’s mural connected with this place. To make a long story short, in 2011 STIK created here a mural on container sheets, which mysteriously disappeared and was found cut into pieces (about £30,000 each) in a London gallery. For 5 years there was a battle to recover the parts of the mural and return the pieces to their original place. STIK and his team won the fight and today we can look at the mural in the Imperial Yard in Gdansk.

Classic wandering around the city

Outside of ZASPA, murals in Gdansk are rambling. We can find them nearly everywhere, even in the Old Town. Most of them are matched to the neighborhood, for example in the Old Town the murals are styled to look like they’re centuries old.

It is worth looking for some stickers and stencils. They are smaller in size and illegal, but they are sometimes more interesting than the big and official ones. One time I even managed to find Lech Walesa (former president of Poland and one of the people who influenced the fall of communism in Poland) playing the guitar.

There are still some murals that I haven’t seen here. So I will share my experience from the place I was. In Górny Wrzeszcz I found mainly the works of local artist – TUSE.

What else we can find in Gdansk? There are quite a few paintings on Grunwaldzka Avenue and in the Przymorze area. There are a lot of paintings about which you couldn’t find any information on the internet. So, it is worth exploring on your own. In that way I found the works of Szwedzki – an artist from Silesia, who came here to demand access to the sea for Sosnowiec (a city in central Poland).

Is there street art in Gdansk?

To this question, I boldly answer YES! You can find here both murals and events related to street art, and much, much more! That’s why it’s always worth dropping by Gdansk when you have a chance and checking out what’s going on here.

See you in… Gdansk?

K.

PS Do you know more murals in Gdansk? Do not keep such information to yourself and share it in the comments 🙂