On Solidarity Square stands a monument to the victims of December 70, designed by Bogdan Pietruszka, Robert Peplinski, Elżbieta Szczodrowska-Peplinska and Wiesława Szyślak. Three crosses, 42 meters high, are decorated in their lower parts with bas-reliefs from the lives of shipyard workers. The crosses, built on a triangular plan, have irregular, cracked shapes. The crosses were made at the Gdansk Shipyard from sheet metal supplied by Batory Steelworks, while the bas-reliefs were made from stainless steel. On the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy of December '70, the monument gained a renewed form. The crosses, a symbol of suffering, commemorate the first three shipyard workers killed by the MO and the People's Army. The anchors binding them together are a sign of hope, a reference to the years 1956,1970 and l976. The shipyard workers waited ten years for the commemoration of their fallen colleagues. Despite promises made in early 1971, the communist authorities did not agree to any form of commemoration.
Michal - 02.09.2009
