Gdynia’s Modernist Centre on the UNESCO World Heritage List

On Monday 27 July, in Busan, South Korea, at the 48th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, a decision was taken to inscribe the centre of Gdynia on the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List. This is Poland’s 18th inscription.

The urban complex known as the “Early Modernist Centre of Gdynia” is an outstanding and pioneering example of the early phase of modernism on a global scale, built from scratch between 1926 and 1939, and unique in terms of its spatial and functional design. As stated in the definition of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV):

“The founding of Gdynia symbolises a new beginning in the way we think about the city and its inhabitants. These characteristics distinguish Gdynia from earlier 19th-century towns, where residential buildings were crammed with extensions leading to poor living conditions, as well as from the housing estates built in the interwar period by the architectural avant-garde (e.g. from the Bauhaus circle), which promoted low-density block housing, and from urban complexes of later phases of modernism. The new quality of the urban layout forms the foundation of a society aware of its needs and striving to realise its ambitions. Furthermore, the architecture of Gdynia’s early-modernist city centre exhibits distinct features of early modernism and constitutes a unique and, in terms of scale, unprecedented example of the turning point in the interwar modernist period, namely the transition from traditional historicist forms to innovative and multidimensional forms of modernism. Gdynia’s early modernist city centre is also intrinsically linked to the port, constituting a unique example of a city centre designed in close connection with the coastal landscape, where this concept laid the compositional foundations for both the overall urban planning and the architectural forms of individual buildings, emphasising maritime references and symbolism. The unique character of Gdynia’s early modernist city centre was also significantly influenced by the fact that it was created as a modernist complex with a highly diverse, functional profile for a city centre, whilst at the same time being a project designed and realised by a vast number of individual investors and designers.”

The value of modernity and a new understanding of heritage

In an interview with Katarzyna Fryc for “Gazeta Wyborcza – Trójmiasto” in March 2026, Prof. Jacek Purchla, when asked what significance the inclusion of Gdynia’s modernist city centre on the UNESCO list would have, emphasised:

– The question is what Poland’s eighteenth nomination – prepared with such extraordinary care and professionalism by the Gdynia team led by former Deputy Mayor Marek Stępa and the city’s conservation officer Robert Hirsch – might contribute to UNESCO’s already rich heritage. Among the 28 UNESCO cultural heritage sites currently located within Poland, Gdynia’s initiative not only radically shifts the traditional chronology of our thinking about the necessary protection of historic monuments, but also significantly broadens our understanding of the concept of cultural heritage. It is no longer “the past” and the “patina and moss-covered appearance” typical of many historic buildings, but the unique value of our modernity – created by the Second Polish Republic on the Baltic coast – that determines the special place of Gdynia’s modernism.

This also sets an important precedent in our Polish thinking regarding the contemporary approach to the preservation of historic monuments. For we are dealing with one of Europe’s youngest cities, which is celebrating just its 100th anniversary.

About the UNESCO World Heritage List

The UNESCO World Heritage List was established under the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

It includes the world’s most valuable sites, which have been recognised as being of great importance to humanity as a whole. The main aim is to protect the representative cultural and natural heritage of all regions of the world. Each year, States Parties to the World Heritage Convention (Poland ratified the Convention in 1976) may submit only one nomination for inclusion on the List. Decisions on nominations are taken at sessions of the World Heritage Committee.

The fate of the nominations is then decided by an international panel comprising representatives from 21 member states; this panel serves a fixed term of five years. Between 2025 and 2029, Poland will be one of the member states on the panel.

We warmly congratulate the local authorities!


Photo: courtesy of the Kraków Modernism Trail