Historically and culturally part ofKashubia andEastern Pomerania, Gdynia for centuries remained a small fishing village. By the 20th-century it attracted visitors as a seasideresort town. In 1926, Gdynia was granted city rights after which it enjoyed demographic and urban development, with amodernist cityscape. It became a major seaport city of Poland. In 1970,protests in and around Gdynia contributed to the rise of theSolidarity movement in nearbyGdańsk.
Medieval St. Michael Archangel Church is the oldest building in Gdynia
The area of the later city of Gdynia shared its history withPomerelia (Eastern Pomerania). In prehistoric times, it was the center ofOksywie culture; it was later populated byLechites with minorBaltic Prussian influences. In the late 10th century, the region was united with the emerging state of Poland[8] by its first historic rulerMieszko I. During the reign ofBolesław II, the region seceded from Poland and became independent, to be reunited with Poland in 1116/1121 byBolesław III.[9] In 1209, the present-day district ofOksywie was first mentioned (Oxhöft). Following the fragmentation of Poland, the region became part of the Duchy of Pomerania (Eastern), which became separate from Poland in 1227, to be reunited in 1282. The first known mention of the name "Gdynia", as aPomeranian (Kashubian) fishing village dates back to 1253. The first church on this part of the Baltic Sea coast was built there. In 1309–1310, theTeutonic Order invaded and annexed the region from Poland. In 1380, the owner of the village which became Gdynia, Peter fromRusocin, gave the village to theCistercian Order. In 1382, Gdynia became property of the Cistercianabbey inOliwa. In 1454, KingCasimir IV Jagiellon signed the act of reincorporation of the region to theKingdom of Poland, and theThirteen Years' War, the longest of all Polish-Teutonic wars, started. It ended in 1466, when the Teutonic Knights recognized the region as part of Poland. Administratively, Gdynia was located in thePomeranian Voivodeship in the province ofRoyal Prussia[10] in theGreater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland and later of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The present-day neighbourhood of Kolibki was the location of the Kolibki estate, purchased by KingJohn III Sobieski in 1685.
In 1772, Gdynia was annexed by theKingdom of Prussia in theFirst Partition of Poland. Gdynia, under the Germanized nameGdingen, was included within the newly formed province ofWest Prussia and was expropriated from the Cistercian Order. In 1789, there were only 21 houses in Gdynia. Around that time Gdynia was so small that it was not marked on many maps of the period: it was about halfway from Oksywie and Mały Kack, now districts of Gdynia. In 1871, the village became part of theGerman Empire. In the early 20th century Gdynia was not a poor fishing village as it is sometimes described; it had become a popular tourist spot with several guest houses, restaurants, cafés, several brick houses and a small harbour with a pier for small trading ships. The firstKashubian mayor was Jan Radtke.[11] It is estimated that around 1910 the population of Gdynia was 895 people.[12]
FollowingWorld War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and following theTreaty of Versailles, in 1920, Gdynia was re-integrated with the reborn Polish state. Simultaneously, the nearby city of Gdańsk (Danzig) and surrounding area was declared afree city and put under theLeague of Nations, though Poland was given economic liberties and requisitioned for matters of foreign representation.
The decision to build a major seaport at Gdynia village was made by the Polish government in winter 1920,[13] in the midst of thePolish–Soviet War (1919–1921).[14] The authorities and seaport workers of theFree City of Danzig felt Poland's economic rights in the city were being misappropriated to help fight the war. German dockworkers went on strike, refusing to unload shipments of military supplies sent from the West to aid the Polish army,[14] and Poland realized the need for a port city it was in complete control of, economically and politically.[15]
Museum of the Navy in Gdynia
Construction of Gdynia seaport started in 1921[14] but, because of financial difficulties, it was conducted slowly and with interruptions. It was accelerated after theSejm (Polish parliament) passed theGdynia Seaport Construction Act on 23 September 1922. By 1923 a 550-metre pier, 175 metres (574 feet) of a wooden tide breaker, and a small harbour had been constructed. Ceremonial inauguration of Gdynia as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter took place on 23 April 1923. The first major seagoing ship, the French Line steamerKentucky, arrived on 13 August 1923 after being diverted because of a strike at Gdansk.[16]
To speed up the construction works, the Polish government in November 1924 signed a contract with the French-Polish Consortium for Gdynia Seaport Construction. By the end of 1925, they had built a small seven-metre-deep harbour, the south pier, part of the north pier, a railway, and had ordered the trans-shipment equipment. The works were going more slowly than expected, however. They accelerated only after May 1926, because of an increase in Polish exports by sea, economic prosperity, the outbreak of the German–Polish trade war which reverted most Polish international trade to sea routes, and thanks to the personal engagement ofEugeniusz Kwiatkowski, Polish Minister of Industry and Trade (also responsible for the construction ofCentralny Okręg Przemysłowy). By the end of 1930 docks, piers, breakwaters, and many auxiliary and industrial installations were constructed (such as depots, trans-shipment equipment, and a rice processing factory) or started (such as a large cold store).[citation needed]
Trans-shipments rose from 10,000 tons (1924) to 2,923,000 tons (1929). At this time Gdynia was the only transit and special seaport designed for coal exports.[citation needed]
In the years 1931–1939 Gdynia harbour was further extended to become a universal seaport. In 1938 Gdynia was the largest and most modern seaport on the Baltic Sea, as well as the tenth biggest in Europe. The trans-shipments rose to 8.7 million tons, which was 46% of Polish foreign trade. In 1938 theGdynia shipyard started to build its first full-sea ship, theOlza.[20]
The city was constructed later than the seaport. In 1925 a special committee was inaugurated to build the city; city expansion plans were designed andcity rights were granted in 1926, and tax privileges were granted for investors in 1927. The city started to grow significantly after 1928.
Anew railway station and the Post Office were completed. TheState railways extended their lines, built bridges and also constructed a group of houses for their employees. Within a few years houses were built along some 10 miles (16 km) of road leading northward from theFree City of Danzig to Gdynia and beyond. Public institutions and private employers helped their staff to build houses. In 1933 a plan of development providing for a population of 250,000 was worked out by a special commission appointed by a government committee, in collaboration with the municipal authorities. By 1939 the population had grown to over 120,000.[21]
During the Germaninvasion of Poland, which startedWorld War II in September 1939, Gdynia was the site offierce Polish defense. On 13 September 1939, the Germans carried out first arrests of local Poles in the southern part of the city, while the Polish defense was still ongoing in the northern part.[22] On 14 September 1939, the Germans captured the entire city, and thenoccupied it until 1945. On 15–16 September, the Germans carried out further mass arrests of 7,000 Poles, while Polish soldiers still fought in nearbyKępa Oksywska.[22] The German police surrounded the city and carried out mass searches of weapons.[22] Arrested Poles were held and interrogated in churches, cinemas and halls, and then around 3,000 people were released until 18 September.[22] The occupiers established several prisons and camps for Polish people, who were afterwards either deported toconcentration camps or executed.[23] Some Poles from Gdynia were executed by the Germans nearStarogard Gdański in September 1939.[24] In October and November 1939, the Germans carried out public executions of 52 Poles, including activists, bank directors and priests, in various parts of the city.[25] In November 1939, the occupiers also murdered hundreds of Poles from Gdynia during themassacres in Piaśnica committed nearby as part of theIntelligenzaktion. Among the victims were policemen, officials, civil defenders of Gdynia, judges, court employees, the director and employees of theNational Bank of Poland, merchants, priests, school principals, teachers,[26] and students of local high schools.[27] On the night of 10–11 November, the German security police carried out mass arrests of over 1,500 Poles in theObłuże district, and then murdered 23 young men aged 16–20, in retaliation for breaking windows at the headquarters of the German security police.[28]
Poles arrested by the Germans in Gdynia in September 1939
On 11 November, a German gendarme shot and killed two Polish boys who were collecting Polish books from the street, which were thrown out of the windows by new German settlers in the Oksywie district.[29] The Germans renamed the city toGotenhafen after theGoths, an ancient Germanic tribe, who had lived in the area. 10 Poles from Gdynia were also murdered by the Russians in the largeKatyn massacre in April–May 1940.[30]
Some 50,000 Polish citizens wereexpelled to theGeneral Government (German-occupied central Poland) to make space for new German settlers in accordance with theLebensraum policy. LocalKashubians who were suspected to support the Polish cause, particularly those with higher education, were also arrested and executed. The GermangauleiterAlbert Forster considered Kashubians of "low value" and did not support any attempts to create a Kashubian nationality. Despite such circumstances, local Poles, including Kashubians, organizedPolish resistance groups,Kashubian Griffin (laterPomeranian Griffin), the exiled "Związek Pomorski" in theUnited Kingdom, and local units of theHome Army,Service for Poland's Victory andGray Ranks. Activities included distribution of underground Polish press, smuggling data on German persecution of Poles and Jews to Western Europe, sabotage actions, espionage of the local German industry,[31] and facilitating escapes of endangered Polish resistance members and British and French prisoners of war who fled fromGerman POW camps via the city's port toneutralSweden.[32] TheGestapo cracked down on the Polish resistance several times, with the Poles either killed or deported to theStutthof andRavensbrück concentration camps.[33][34] In 1943, local Poles managed to save somekidnapped Polish children from theZamość region, by buying them from the Germans at the local train station.[35]
The harbour was transformed into a German naval base. Theshipyard was expanded in 1940 and became a branch of theKiel shipyard (Deutsche Werke Kiel A.G.). The city became an important base, due to its being relatively distant from thewar theater, and many German large ships—battleships andheavy cruisers—were anchored there. During 1942, Dr Joseph Goebbels authorized relocation ofCap Arcona to Gotenhafen Harbour as a stand-in forRMS Titanic during filming of the German-produced movieTitanic, directed byHerbert Selpin.
The seaport and the shipyard both witnessed several air raids by theAllies from 1943 onwards, but suffered little damage. Gdynia was used during winter 1944–45 to evacuate Germantroops and refugees trapped by theRed Army. Some of the ships were hit bytorpedoes from Sovietsubmarines in theBaltic Sea on the route west. The shipWilhelm Gustloff sank, taking about 9,400 people with her – the worst loss of life in a single sinking in maritime history. The seaport area was largely destroyed by withdrawing German troops and millions of encircledrefugees in 1945 being bombarded by the Soviet military (90% of the buildings and equipment were destroyed) and the harbour entrance was blocked by the German battleshipGneisenau that had been brought to Gotenhafen for major repairs.
On 28 March 1945, the city was captured by the Soviets and restored to Poland. The Soviets installed a communist regime, which stayed in power until theFall of Communism in 1989. The post-war period saw an influx of settlers fromWarsaw which wasdestroyed by Germany, and other parts of the country as well asPoles from the cities of Wilno (nowVilnius) and Lwów (nowLviv) from theSoviet-annexed former eastern Poland. AlsoGreeks,refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in the city.[40] The port of Gdynia was one of the three Polish ports through which refugees of the Greek Civil War reached Poland.[41]
On 17 December 1970, worker demonstrations took place at Gdynia Shipyard. Workers were fired upon by the police.Janek Wiśniewski was one of 40 killed, and was commemorated in a song byMieczysław Cholewa,Pieśń o Janku z Gdyni. One of Gdynia's important streets is named after Janek Wiśniewski. The event was also portrayed inAndrzej Wajda's movieMan of Iron.
The climate of Gdynia is anoceanic climate owing to its position of theBaltic Sea, which moderates the temperatures, compared to the interior ofPoland. The climate is mild and there is a somewhat uniform precipitation throughout the year. Autumns are significantly warmer than springs because of the warming influence of the Baltic Sea. Nights on average are warmer than in the interior of the country. Typical ofNorthern Europe, there is little sunshine during late autumn, winter and early spring, but plenty during late spring and summer. Because of its northerly latitude, Gdynia has 17 hours of daylight in midsummer but only around 7 hours in midwinter.The lowestpressure in Poland was recorded in Gdynia - 960.2 hPa on 17 January 1931.
Climate data for Gdynia (1981-2010, extremes 1951–2015)
Gdynia is a relatively modern city.[45] Its architecture includes the 13th century St. Michael the Archangel's Church inOksywie, the oldest building in Gdynia, and the 17th centuryneo-Gothicmanor house located on Folwarczna Street in Orłowo.
The surrounding hills and the coastline attract many nature lovers. A leisurepier and a cliff-like coastline inKępa Redłowska, as well as the surrounding Nature Reserve, are also popular locations. In the harbour, there are two anchoredmuseum ships, thedestroyerORP Błyskawica and thetall shipDar Pomorza.[46] A 1.5-kilometre (0.93 mi)-longpromenade leads from themarina in the city center, to the beach inRedłowo.[47]
Most of Gdynia can be seen from Kamienna Góra[48] (54 metres (177 feet)asl) or the viewing point near Chwaszczyno. There are also two viewing towers, one at GóraDonas, the other at Kolibki.
In 2015 theEmigration Museum opened in the city. Other museums include theGdynia Aquarium, Experyment Science Center, Abraham's house, Żeromski's house, Gdynia Automotive Museum, Naval Museum, and Gdynia City Museum.
Gdynia holds many examples of early 20th-century architecture, especially monumentalism and earlyfunctionalism, andmodernism.[49] Historic Urban Layout of the City Center was drafted by Adam Kuncewicz andRoman Feliński in 1926.[5] The central axis of Gdynia is built around 10 Lutego Street, Kosciuszka Square and the Southern Pier.[4] The structure of the city is designed to emphasize the connection of Gdynia and Poland with the Baltic Sea. Examples of modernist architecture are the buildings of the Bank of Poland and many tenement houses (kamienice). Another good example of modernism isPLO Building situated at 10 Lutego Street.
In 2008, Gdynia made it onto theMonopoly Here and Now World Edition[broken anchor] board after being voted by fans through the Internet. Gdynia occupies the space traditionally held byMediterranean Avenue, being the lowest voted city to make it onto the Monopoly Here and Now board, but also the smallest city to make it in the game. All of the other cities are large and widely known ones, the second smallest being Riga. The unexpected success of Gdynia can be attributed to a mobilization of the town's population to vote for it on the Internet.
An abandoned factory district in Gdynia was the scene for the survival seriesMan vs Wild, season 6, episode 12. The host,Bear Grylls, manages to escape the district after blowing up a door and crawling through miles of sewer.
In 2007, 364,202 passengers, 17,025,000 tons of cargo and 614,373 TEU containers passed through the port. Regularcar ferry service operates between Gdynia and Karlskrona, Sweden.
Gdynia operates one of only threetrolleybus systems in Poland, alongsideLublin andTychy. Today there are 18 trolleybus lines in Gdynia with a total length of 96 km (60 mi). The fleet is modern and consists ofSolaris Trollino cars. There is also a historic line, connecting city centre with a district ofOrłowo operated by five retro trolleybuses. In addition to that, Gdynia operates an extensive network of bus lines, connecting the city with the adjacent suburbs.
The conurbation's main airport,Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, lays approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south-west of central Gdynia, and has connections to approximately 55 destinations. It is the third largest airport in Poland.[59] A secondGeneral Aviation terminal was scheduled to be opened by May 2012, which will increase the airport's capacity to 5mln passengers per year.
Another local airport, (Gdynia-Kosakowo Airport) is situated partly in the village ofKosakowo, just to the north of the city, and partly in Gdynia. This has been a military airport since the World War II, but it has been decided in 2006 that the airport will be used to serve civilians.[60] Work was well in progress and was due to be ready for 2012 when the project collapsed following a February 2014 EU decision regarding Gdynia city funding as constituting unfair competition to Gdańsk airport. In March 2014, the airport management company filed for bankruptcy, this being formally announced in May that year. The fate of some PLN 100 million of public funds from Gdynia remain unaccounted for with documents not being released, despite repeated requests for such from residents to the city president,Wojciech Szczurek.
The principal station in Gdynia isGdynia Główna railway station, the busiest railway station in the Tricity and northern Poland and sixth busiest in Poland overall, serving 13,41 mln passengers in 2022.[61] Gdynia has eleven railway stations. Local train services are provided by the 'Fast Urban Railway,'Szybka Kolej Miejska (Tricity) operating frequent trains covering theTricity area includingGdańsk,Sopot and Gdynia. Long-distance trains from Warsaw via Gdańsk terminate at Gdynia, and there are direct trains toSzczecin,Poznań,Katowice,Lublin and other major cities. In 2011-2015 the Warsaw-Gdańsk-Gdynia route was undergoing a major upgrading costing $3 billion, partly funded by theEuropean Investment Bank, including track replacement, realignment of curves and relocation of sections of track to allow speeds up to 200 km/h (124 mph), modernization of stations, and installation of the most modernETCS signalling system, which was completed in June 2015. In December 2014 newAlstomPendolino high-speed trains were put into service between Gdynia, Warsaw andKraków reducing rail travel times to Gdynia by 2 hours.[62][63]
There are currently 8universities and institutions of higher education based in Gdynia. Many students from Gdynia also attend universitieslocated in the Tricity.
Gunnar Heinsohn (born 1943), German author, sociologist and economist
Klaus Hurrelmann (born 1944), Professor of Public Health and Education
Hilary Jastak (1914–2000 in Gdynia), Catholic priest, Doctor of Theology, Chaplain of Solidarity movement, Major of Polish Armed Forces, Lieutenant Commander of the Polish Navy
Jan Kaczkowski (1977–2016), Roman Catholic priest, doctor of theological sciences, bioethicist, vlogger, organizer, and director of the Puck Hospice
^"Główny Urząd Statystyczny" [Central Statistical Office] (in Polish). To search: Select "Miejscowości (SIMC)" tab, select "fragment (min. 3 znaki)" (minimum 3 characters), enter town name in the field below, click "WYSZUKAJ" (Search).
^André Vauchez, Richard Barrie Dobson, Adrian Walford, Michael Lapidge,Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, Routledge, 2000, p.: 1163,ISBN978-1-57958-282-1link
^James Minahan, One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, p.375,ISBN978-0-313-30984-7
^abcRobert Michael Citino.The path to blitzkrieg: doctrine and training in the German Army, 1920–1939. Lynne Rienner Publishers. 1999. p. 173.
^"Port history".Port Gydnia. Retrieved14 August 2025.In 1920 there was a conflict regarding the blocking of trans-shipment of arms to Poland during the war with Russia, calling Polish warships at port, etc. The need to build the own sea port became apparent.
^"Emigration Shipping Lines of Gdynia, 1924-1939", by Oskar Myszor, inEast Central Europe in Exile: Transatlantic Migrations, ed. by Anna Mazurkiewicz (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014) p. 165
^Drywa, Danuta (2020). "Germanizacja dzieci i młodzieży polskiej na Pomorzu Gdańskim z uwzględnieniem roli obozu koncentracyjnego Stutthof". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.).Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945) (in Polish).Kraków:Uniwersytet Jagielloński,Biblioteka Jagiellońska. p. 181.
^Kołakowski, Andrzej (2020). "Zbrodnia bez kary: eksterminacja dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji niemieckiej w latach 1939-1945". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.).Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945) (in Polish). Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska. p. 75.
^Chrzanowski, Bogdan (2022).Polskie Państwo Podziemne na Pomorzu w latach 1939–1945 (in Polish). Gdańsk: IPN. pp. 30, 40, 48, 52, 57.ISBN978-83-8229-411-8.
^Chrzanowski, Bogdan. "Organizacja sieci przerzutów drogą morską z Polski do Szwecji w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (1939–1945)".Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum (in Polish).5: 16, 25,30–34.ISSN0137-5377.
^Chrzanowski, Bogdan.Polskie Państwo Podziemne na Pomorzu w latach 1939–1945. pp. 47,50–51.
^Chrzanowski, Bogdan. "Organizacja sieci przerzutów drogą morską z Polski do Szwecji w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (1939–1945)": 16,27–28, 37.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
^Kozaczyńska, Beata (2020). "Gdy zabrakło łez... Tragizm losu polskich dzieci wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny (1942-1943)". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.).Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945) (in Polish). Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska. p. 123.
^Daniluk, Jan (21 February 2024). "Stalag XX B Marienburg: geneza i znaczenie obozu jenieckiego w Malborku-Wielbarku w latach II wojny światowej". In Grudziecka, Beata (ed.).Stalag XX B: historia nieopowiedziana (in Polish). Malbork: Muzeum Miasta Malborka. p. 12.ISBN978-83-950992-2-9.
^Gliński, Mirosław. "Podobozy i większe komanda zewnętrzne obozu Stutthof (1939–1945)".Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum (in Polish).3: 168, 180.ISSN0137-5377.
^Kubasiewicz, Izabela (2013). "Emigranci z Grecji w Polsce Ludowej. Wybrane aspekty z życia mniejszości". In Dworaczek, Kamil; Kamiński, Łukasz (eds.).Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2012. Referaty (in Polish). Warsaw: IPN. p. 117.
^"Pendolino z Trójmiasta do Warszawy" [Pendolino from Tri-city to Warsaw].Trojmiasto.pl (in Polish). 30 July 2013.Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved24 December 2014.
^"Gdynia i Kaohsiung podpisały umowę o partnerstwie" [Gdynia and Kaohsiung signed a partnership agreement].Gdynia City Government (in Polish). Gdynia. 25 September 2025.Archived from the original on 23 October 2025. Retrieved23 October 2025.
The list includes the 107 urban municipalities governed by acity mayor (prezydent miasta) instead of a town mayor (burmistrz) ·Cities with powiat rights are initalics · Voivodeship cities are inbold
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