Gdańsk – City of Cranes, 2020
acrylic on canvas, 130 × 100 cm

“Cranes can be part of the port or the shipyards, swivel or gantry, jib or scissor cranes. Many kinds. The oldest is the Great Crane from the fifteenth century, which stands on the River Motława in the very heart of the Old Town. The best known and most widely recognized cranes are the shipyard cranes, which were erected in Gdańsk in the 1970s and provided a backdrop for the striking shipyard workers.

Is it possible to imagine Gdańsk without its cranes – those green metal symbols of freedom that tower over the city, proud and ever turned towards the heavens? The cranes are a symbol of the fall of communism in Europe and an element of our heritage. Though silent, they speak of history, recall images from years ago. They transport us to the events that took place in the Gdańsk Shipyard in August 1980. Here, among the cranes, Solidarity was born. The cranes were witnesses to a victorious struggle for freedom of speech and belief.

For me, the cranes had a meaning and an educational value when I studied at the Faculty of Ocean Technology and Shipbuilding at Gdańsk Technical University. But they also had an emotional value since the firm that I worked in when I graduated had its headquarters in the Gdańsk Shipyard. Every day for six years, I passed by them and I watched ships being launched. Today, on my way to the University, I pass the cranes of the port.

I look at the cranes and I know that it is impossible to imagine this city of freedom without its cranes.”

SEA EU Maritime Universities
in the Paintings of Aneta Oniszczuk-Jastrząbek, Gdańsk 2022