The Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers 1970 is also called the Three Crosses Monument and commemorates the victims of December 1970. It recalls the dramatic events in December 1970 when, during strikes by workers of the then named Lenin Shipyard and their suppression by the army, dozens of shipyard workers died tragically in the streets. For ten years the authorities did not allow a monument to be erected. This only became possible in August 1980.

The first wooden cross was erected before the gates of the shipyard but by then the design of the new monument was decided and collections taken up around the whole country to raise money for this project. Already, by the 16th December, near the second gate where the first fatalities fell in 1970, a new monument was officially unveiled.

It consists of three crosses with a height of 42m, each weighing 36 tons. An anchor is suspended on each cross weighing about 2 tons. On the lower part of the monument are bas-reliefs with scenes from the lives of shipyard workers. On the monument is a quotation from Psalm 29 and also a part of a poem by Czeslaw Milosz titled “You Who Wronged“. There are also plaques with the names of all the people killed in 1970.

Three Crosses Monument – Gdansk (woj. Pomorskie)

www.gdansk.pl