Central Maritime Museum elevated to National Museum status!

On 10 December this year the Polish Maritime Museum was elevated to the rank of a National Museum. After the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bogdan Zdrojewski, granted the request of the CMM, the Museum Council, the Society of Friends of the CMM and the Nautological Society.

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The decision of the Minister of Culture was handed over by Deputy Minister Małgorzata Omilanowska on a very special day for the museum as it was celebrating its 55th anniversary. The Gdańsk museum is one of the largest cultural and research institutions in the world that collects, processes, preserves and makes available to visitors relics of European and especially Polish maritime heritage.

According to Museum Director Jerzy Litwin, it is a great honour for a museum to have its achievements recognised and to have been awarded the highest rank. Joining the group of museums managed by the Ministry, which includes the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the Wawel Royal Castle or the Castle Museum in Malbork, opens new perspectives for comprehensive development.

The National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk specialises in underwater archaeological research and professional conservation of finds. Thanks to this, it can boast, among others, 20 cannons excavated from a Swedish shipwreck, the cargo and structure of a 15th-century merchant ship, the so-called Copper Ship, or a collection of seamen’s clothes from the 18th-century ship “General Carleton”.

The museum has very ambitious development plans, as it is applying for Norwegian funds to build a Shipwreck Conservation Centre in Tczew, which will combine the function of a modern conservation workshop and an innovative study warehouse open to visitors.

The next stage and challenge will be the modernisation of the Vistula Lagoon Museum in Kąty Rybackie. The institution also regularly takes part in a number of international scientific programmes.

The mission of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk is the protection of maritime cultural and technical heritage. We wish you further success in collecting and preserving historical monuments and in disseminating knowledge about them, as well as about the maritime history of Poland and its economy throughout history.

Source: cmm.pl