Masts in front of the former Maritime Culture Centre in Nowy Port

Technique: cast

Object: Nine masts (lanterns?) crowned with tridents. The decorative public art objects are place in front of the façade of the building.

Place: The Socialist Realist building of the Nowy Port Culture Centre (currently housing the University of Security and other institutions) was erected in Marynarki Polskiej Street, as if anticipating access to the “gate” of buildings introducing Marynarki Polskiej Street into the regular street grid of the Nowy Port district. The building’s façade faces the architecturally unformed urban interior of Marynarki Polskiej Street, while its rear elevation faces Ks. Mariana Góreckiego Street, the interior of which is formed by the wall around the Maritime Culture Centre and the cemetery fence on the other side of the street. There are public art objects in front of the building’s façade. The former Maritime Culture Centre was officially opened on 07 November 1954, on the 37^th anniversary of the end of the October Revolution. The building was owned by the port of Gdańsk and the Culture Centre acted as a meeting place for port workers and their families – it housed a theatre, a cinema, a café and a reading room. It was the cultural centre of Nowy Port: a venue where foreign language courses, meetings, music and dance events were organized, and where it was also possible to pursue artistic interests in photography, modelling, shipbuilding and dancing for children. In the 1990s, the owner (Port of Gdańsk Authority S.A.) sold the building, which thus ceased to perform its original functions. Currently, it houses, among others, the University of Security and the Portowiec gym. The residents of Nowy Port want to reinstate the original function of the building and have been striving to do so since 1992 as the Maritime Culture Centre Association.

Information about the author: –

Condition of the object: poor

Owner/guardian: University of Security (WSB)

Sources:

Inventory card (prepared by: Prof. Dr. Hab. Piotr Lorens, Arch.Eng.; Dr. Izabela Burda, Arch.Eng.; architecture students: Daria Zimnicka, Oliwia Żuralska, 2018)

Anita Płonowska – Local Guide

Author of the entry: inventory made by the Gdańsk University of Technology team, description of the place: Jacek Dominiczak, additional information: Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza