Pick out your stop

The Westerplatte monument and the ruins around it

The quick version

The Westerplatte monument is the 25-metre granite Monument to the Coast Defenders, unveiled in 1966 on a man-made mound, with Guardhouse No. 1, the barracks ruins and the soldiers' cemetery nearby.

On the site

  • Guardhouse No. 1 is the post open inside3
  • 7 flames for the 7 days13
  • Exhibition closed on Mondays78

Browse 37 stops

Westerplatte, the port and the city, pin by pin

Select a route, then tap a marker or stop to see its note and open Google Maps.

Map of the Westerplatte memorial area with the Monument to the Coast Defenders, the Polish Army Soldiers' Cemetery, the Visitor Centre and the excavated depot buildings
  1. Unveiled on 9 October 1966: 25 m of granite in 236 blocks on a mound 22.5 m high.

    Google Maps
  2. Opened in 2022 beside the site of guardhouse V, with steles for all 15 fallen and white roses where remains were found.

    Google Maps
  3. At the entrance to the peninsula: information, guides, a cafe and the only car park; open 9:00-16:00 daily.

    Google Maps
  4. Finds from the battlefield and the later prisoner camp, in the depot's power plant at Sucharskiego 84.

    Google Maps
  5. Uncovered by the museum's archaeologists; Platoon Sergeant Petzelt was first buried beside the villa.

    Google Maps
  6. The NCO mess began life as the spa house of the old seaside resort.

    Google Maps
  7. Placed above the cemetery mound in 1962 in place of the Dąbrowski cross, and moved away in summer 1989.

    Google Maps

Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors

The Westerplatte monument towers over the port, but the authentic battlefield lies in the woods behind it. A walk through what was built, what survived and what was lost.

Editorial team, westerplattecruise.click · Updated November 9, 2026 · 8 min reading time

In brief

  • The monument25 m of granite on a mound, unveiled in October 1966.1,2
  • Guardhouse No. 1The only Polish post open inside, with mementoes.3,4
  • Barracks ruinsThe 1939 command post, kept as a permanent ruin.5,6
  • The cemeteryOpened in 2022 for the 15 fallen defenders.7,8
  • ExhibitionFinds from the soil, in the old power plant.9

The Westerplatte monument: granite on a man-made hill

The Westerplatte monument, officially the Monument to the Coast Defenders, was unveiled on 9 October 1966.2 It rises 25 m and is assembled from 236 granite blocks of 6 to 12 tonnes, cut in the quarries of Strzegom and Borów.1 The heritage institute names the sculptor Franciszek Duszeńko and the architect Adam Haupt as its authors, and the city adds H. Kitowski to the design team.10,2

The hill under it is not natural. In the 1960s the port canal was widened and deepened, and the spoil was used to raise a mound 22.5 m high, in the city's figure.11 The heritage institute rounds it to 22 m and describes the monument as a notched bayonet driven into the ground, a form that also recalls an obelisk and a sword with a shattered guard.12 It can be seen from far out on the water and from the galleons that loop round the peninsula.

At the foot of the monument burn 7 flames, one for each day of the defence.13 This is where the official ceremony is held every year at dawn on 1 September, starting at 4:45 AM.14 Climb the steps for the view across the canal to Nowy Port and the lighthouse, then turn inland: the heritage institute stresses that the monument honours Polish armed action on land and sea throughout the war, not only the depot.13

What survives

The depot's buildings then and now

StructureBuiltToday
Guardhouse No. 11933-1934Museum room, moved in 1967
New barracks1934-36Permanent ruin
Fort outpost1911Surviving shelter
Power plant1926Archaeology exhibition
Guardhouse V1933Gone; cemetery beside it
Old barracksAround 1890Foundations only

Building dates as the heritage institute, the city and the WWII Museum record them.27,28,29,25,30,31

Reading the Westerplatte memorial with open eyes

The City of Gdańsk is frank about the monument. It was built at a time unfriendly to historical truth, the city writes, so its imagery is thoroughly communist.19 At the top a soldier and a sailor hold a PPSh submachine gun together, and the battlefields carved on it include Studzianki and Lenino, neither of which lies by the sea.20 The only place name tied to the defence is Westerplatte itself, with no mention of 1939.21

There is even an error in the inscriptions. The monument and the old cemetery plaque name the Gdańsk Post, when the postal workers who fought were from the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk; the Gdańsk Post was the German one.22 Under the People's Republic, Westerplatte served as a propaganda showcase, visited by delegations of allied communist parties and by French Presidents Charles de Gaulle and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.23 De Gaulle came in 1967, the same year the guardhouse by the quay was moved inland to save it.17

The Museum of the Second World War notes that for decades Westerplatte has been associated above all with this memorial, and its new museum wants to turn attention back to the authentic battlefield.24 None of this makes the monument meaningless: it is where wreaths are laid each year. It does mean the story of the depot is told better by the concrete in the trees than by the granite on the hill.

Measured in metres

The memorial and the battlefield by size

  • Monument height25 m
  • Mound height22.5 m
  • Power plant length27 m
  • Guardhouse moved80 m
  • Battleship to shore150 m

Heights from the City of Gdańsk; the power plant from the museum; the battleship's mooring from the city's account of 1939.1,11,25,17,26

Guardhouse No. 1 at Westerplatte

Guardhouse No. 1 at Westerplatte is the one building of the depot you can enter. It is one of 6 guardhouses built in the 1930s, and the heritage institute dates it to 1933-1934.34,27 During the battle its cellar shelter and windows commanded the canal side and the neck of the peninsula.35 Its walls were hit by shell splinters and machine-gun fire, yet the building came through.36

It does not stand where it was built. The guardhouse stood on the port quay, where the ferry base is now, and in 1967 it was moved in a complex engineering operation to save it from demolition.31 The city puts the distance at about 80 m.17 Look for the foundation slab, which still marks the original spot.27 In June 1974 a Memorial Chamber opened inside, and in 1980 it became a branch of the Museum of Gdańsk.37

Inside are mementoes of the depot and its defenders.4 The defence ministry's magazine lists among them Major Sucharski's uniform jacket and 2 shells from the battleship.38 It is a small space: go in quietly, read the labels slowly and treat it as a memorial room rather than a quick photo stop. It is also the natural place to begin a walk, because what you see inside makes the ruins outside easier to read.

Where to start

Which part of the site suits your visit

Start where your interest is, then walk the rest.

  • If I have very little time

    Monument and cemetery

    The monument is where the ceremony is held; the cemetery carries the 15 names.14,8

  • If I want something indoors

    Guardhouse No. 1 and the exhibition

    The guardhouse room and the power plant exhibition are the covered stops.3,9

  • If I want the real battlefield

    The barracks ruins

    The 1939 command post, kept as a permanent ruin.5,6

  • If I am coming on a Tuesday

    Start at the exhibition

    Tuesday is its free day, with tickets at its own desk.32

  • If I would rather stay on a boat

    Take a galleon round trip

    An 80-minute loop shows the granite from the deck.

Ways to see it

The monument by boat or the ruins on foot

From the water

Galleon past the monument

From the Long Embankment

  • Length80 minutes
  • GuidePolish, English, German
  • LandingNone
See the tour

On foot

Guided walk at the site

Gate, barracks, monument, cemetery

  • Length1.5 - 2.5 hours
  • MeetsBy the dock
  • GroupPrivate available
See the tour

Private

Private battlefield walk

Plaques, cemetery, guardhouse

  • Length2 hours
  • MeetsSucharskiego 70
  • GroupPrivate
See the tour

The Westerplatte barracks ruins

The modern barracks, with guardhouse VI in the cellar, were built in 1934-36.28 They had an underground storey with a reinforced-concrete shelter.5 In September 1939 this was the heart of the defence: command post, main dressing station, crew shelter, radio station and combat power plant.6 The building was badly damaged in the fighting, and the most wrecked wing was pulled down after the war.5

The defence ministry's magazine adds that the barracks, built almost like a bunker, came through the German attacks in fair shape and went up in explosions when the area was cleared of mines after 1945.80 What remains are the Westerplatte barracks ruins you see today, kept as a permanent ruin and meant, in the museum's words, as a tangible reminder of the brutality of war.5,44

Research is still changing how the ruin is read. Laser scanning and reverse reconstruction have allowed the museum to identify rooms such as the radio station, a combat cabin and the commander's battle post.81 Near the north wing the excavators dug up a base plate from 1 of the garrison's 4 mortars.82 Stay on the paths, do not climb the walls and keep children close: exposed reinforcement and broken concrete are everywhere.

Price your visit

What it costs to see the monument and ruins

Pick a way to see the site, then set your group size.

Compare 3 side by side

What it costs to see the monument and ruins

Pick a way to see the site, then set your group size.

2 people
  1. Galleon past the monument80 minutes · per visitor from €29

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  2. Galleon round trip80 minutes · per visitor from €21

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  3. Guided walk at the site1.5 - 2.5 hours · per visitor from €43

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These from-prices come from GetYourGuide and are converted using the ECB reference rate; the exact price shows at checkout.

Memory in stone

How the memorial landscape took shape

  1. 1946

    A cross for the fallen

    Raised by comrades on the site of guardhouse V.15

  2. 1962

    The tank arrives

    A T-34 replaces the cross on the mound.16

  3. 9 October 1966

    The monument unveiled

    Granite on a mound of canal spoil.2

  4. 1967

    Guardhouse No. 1 moved

    About 80 m, away from the quay.17

  5. 1989

    Cemetery renewed

    The tank moved, crosses set up.18

  6. 4 November 2022

    The new cemetery

    The found defenders are buried.7

The Polish Army Soldiers' Cemetery

The cemetery has been rebuilt several times. Comrades put up a cross and a plaque on the site of guardhouse V in 1946.15 In 1962 the authorities took away the cross and placed a Soviet T-34 tank on the mound above the cemetery.16 For the 50th anniversary in 1989 the tank was moved and the cemetery renovated, with 15 granite crosses and a larger 16th for Major Sucharski.18,58

After remains were found in 2019, the museum decided to build a new burial place.83 An international competition announced on 10 August 2020 drew 27 entries, and the Warsaw firm NM Architekci won.84 Work began in May 2022 and finished at the turn of September and October.85 The burial took place on 4 November 2022, making the cemetery the first finished part of the new museum.7

The design is quiet and circular. Name steles for the 15 fallen are spaced evenly around it, the original Virtuti Militari monument stands in the centre, and the Dąbrowski Cross looks over it all.8 White roses grow where remains were found.51 The whole complex is lit to bring out its relics and symbols, and it will be one of the main points of the future outdoor museum.86,87

Video

Westerplatte today: the monument, the ruins and where the war began

The History Underground on YouTube · The video stays unloaded until you press play.

Westerplatte does not appeal to the eye, but directly to the heart.
National Institute of Cultural Heritage (NID)33

The walk

Checklist for the monument and ruins

Getting there3

  • Buses 106, 138 or 606 to the terminus72
  • Keep out of the fenced museum construction zone77
  • Exhibition: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-16:0078

On the trail4

  • Find the foundation slab where Guardhouse No. 1 first stood27
  • Behave with gravity and respect79
  • Tuesday: free entry to the exhibition32
  • Count the 7 flames at the foot of the monument13

Other relics on the trail

Several other structures survive. The heritage institute lists guardhouses 1, 3 and 4, the Fort and Power Station outposts, the relics of the new barracks and the remains of ammunition stores.40 The Fort was built in 1911 as the artillery commander's post, before the Polish depot existed.29 Guardhouse III was not a separate building but 2 combat cabins in the cellar of the NCO villa.28

Look out for smaller traces as you walk. There are relics of the boundary wall and the railway gate, the foundation of the station building, and remains of the old barracks, the mess, the officers' and NCOs' villas, the fuel store and the breakwater.49 The mess began life as the spa house of the old seaside resort, and the old barracks were one of its guest houses.57 Archaeologists have uncovered the officers' villa, the old barracks and several ammunition shelters.56

Other memorials are newer. A monument marks the place of Pope John Paul II's Mass here in 1987, and a recent pedestal marks the battlefield's status as a Monument of History.88 That status dates from a presidential decree of 22 August 2003.89 One memorial is gone: an obelisk of 1928 for 10 years of independence stood on the parade ground until it was dismantled at the turn of 1939 and 1940.90

Walking the trail today

Westerplatte is changing. The first phase of building the new museum began in February 2026, the construction site is fenced off and the road by the Visitor Centre has been shut.77 The only car park is next to the Visitor Centre, so come by bus 106, 138 or 606 if you can.53,72 The Visitor Centre is open daily 9:00-16:00 and can help with a route and a guide.54,52

Under cover, the archaeology exhibition in the old power plant opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-16:00, and is closed on Mondays.78 Tuesday is its free day, with tickets issued at its own desk.32 Last entry is 45 minutes before closing.91 The museum recommends it for visitors over 8, with a visit of at least 30 minutes.92

The rules are simple and worth following. Behave with gravity and respect, dress for the place, and keep children with an adult on the cemetery.79,93,94 Photography is fine, but not with extra lighting or a tripod without permission.95 The heritage institute's description says it best: grey, mossy concrete and rusting bars, a place that speaks to the heart rather than the eye.33

FAQ

Straight answers to common questions.

How tall is the Westerplatte monument?
25 m, on a mound.

The monument is 25 m high on a mound of about 22.5 m, according to the City of Gdańsk.1,11

When was the monument unveiled?
On 9 October 1966.

It was unveiled on 9 October 1966; the same Gdańsk team also drew up the plan for the grounds around it.2

Who designed it?
Duszeńko and Haupt.

Sculptor Franciszek Duszeńko and architect Adam Haupt, with H. Kitowski in the city's list.10,2

Can you go inside Guardhouse No. 1?
Yes.

It is the only Polish post on Westerplatte open to visitors, with mementoes of the defenders.3,4

Why was the guardhouse moved?
To save it.

It stood on the port quay and was moved in 1967 to avoid demolition.31

What are the ruins near the monument?
The new barracks.

The 1939 command post and shelter, damaged in the battle and kept as a permanent ruin.5,6

Is the cemetery open to visitors?
Yes, with rules.

Behave with respect; no bikes and no dogs except guide and assistance dogs.79,96,97

Sources

  1. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  2. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  3. Gdańsk Tourist Organisation (visitgdansk.com) · Places associated with the Second World War ↩
  4. Museum of Gdańsk · Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte ↩
  5. National Institute of Cultural Heritage (NID) · 87. rocznica wybuchu II wojny światowej. Westerplatte jako symbol pamięci i niezłomności ↩
  6. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Odnaleziono element polskiego moździerza ↩
  7. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Polish Army Soldiers' Cemetery at Westerplatte ↩
  8. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Polish Army Soldiers' Cemetery at Westerplatte ↩
  9. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Power Plant ↩
  10. National Institute of Cultural Heritage (NID) · 87. rocznica wybuchu II wojny światowej. Westerplatte jako symbol pamięci i niezłomności ↩
  11. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  12. National Institute of Cultural Heritage (NID) · 87. rocznica wybuchu II wojny światowej. Westerplatte jako symbol pamięci i niezłomności ↩
  13. National Institute of Cultural Heritage (NID) · 87. rocznica wybuchu II wojny światowej. Westerplatte jako symbol pamięci i niezłomności ↩
  14. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · 87. rocznica wybuchu II wojny światowej - zapraszamy na obchody w Gdańsku ↩
  15. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  16. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Polish Army Soldiers' Cemetery at Westerplatte ↩
  17. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  18. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  19. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  20. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  21. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
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  24. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · #WesterplatteHistory - Monuments at Westerplatte ↩
  25. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Power Plant ↩
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  27. National Institute of Cultural Heritage (NID) · 87. rocznica wybuchu II wojny światowej. Westerplatte jako symbol pamięci i niezłomności ↩
  28. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  29. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża ↩
  30. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · #WesterplatteHistory - The so-called old barracks building ↩
  31. Museum of Gdańsk · Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte ↩
  32. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Regulamin Muzeum Westerplatte ↩
  33. National Institute of Cultural Heritage (NID) · The battlefield of Westerplatte (zabytek.pl) ↩
  34. Museum of Gdańsk · Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte ↩
  35. Museum of Gdańsk · Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte ↩
  36. Museum of Gdańsk · Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte ↩
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  42. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Kopiec - Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża
  43. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Plutonowy Adolf Petzelt (1906-1939)
  44. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Mission of the Westerplatte Museum ↩
  45. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Power Plant
  46. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · 7 września 1939 - kapitulacja Westerplatte
  47. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · 7 września 1939 - kapitulacja Westerplatte
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  53. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · How to get here? (Westerplatte) ↩
  54. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Opening Hours (Westerplatte) ↩
  55. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Power Plant
  56. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Mission of the Westerplatte Museum ↩
  57. City of Gdańsk (gdansk.pl) · Co tak naprawdę kupił w Gdańsku Mieczysław Jałowiecki? ↩
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  92. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Regulamin Muzeum Westerplatte ↩
  93. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Regulamin Muzeum Westerplatte ↩
  94. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Regulamin Muzeum Westerplatte ↩
  95. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Regulamin Muzeum Westerplatte ↩
  96. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Regulamin Muzeum Westerplatte ↩
  97. Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk · Regulamin Muzeum Westerplatte ↩

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