UNESCO in the Pomorskie Voivodeship

The World Heritage List includes cultural, natural and mixed cultural and natural objects.

UNESCO cultural heritage is conventionally divided into:

– tangible heritage, including immovable artefacts (including World Heritage) and movable artefacts;

– intangible heritage “transmitted primarily by word of mouth and tradition”, monuments of writing, which are the subject of the “Memory of the World” programme.

Object in Pomorskie on the UNESCO World Heritage List

The Teutonic Castle in Malbork registered in 1997.

Pomorskie objects on the Polish List of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Kashubian embroidery of the Zukowo school, registered in 2015.

Kaszëbsczé wësziwanié Żukòwsczégò sztélu, Kashubian hand embroidery of the Zukowo school is one of the oldest elements of  Kashubian culture. Knowledge and skills related to it are passed down from generation to generation and constantly recreated by embroiderers who consider it an important part of the Kashubian heritage. This heritage is alive, and Kashubian folk artists are still creating new configurations of embroidery elements and inventing new patterns.

Kashubian Gwiôzdka, registered on the National List in 2019.

One of the Christmas customs in Kashuby is Gwiôzdka, which means that groups of carol singers are visiting each home on Christmas Eve. Whistle teams usually consist of 10 to 15 bachelors aged between 15 and 30. Carol singing begins on Christmas Eve afternoon and lasts almost until Midnight Mass. During this time, several dozen chouses from our own and neighboring villages are visited. For all the years of walking with a whistle groups, its members do not participate in Christmas Eve suppers prepared at homes by their family members.

Carillon music in Gdansk, registered on the National List, December 30, 2020

A carillon is a set of at least 23 large tower bells that can be played by hand, using a keyboard connected by a system of wires and gears with bell hearts. A standard instrument, such as the one in St.Catherine church in Gdansk, has 50 bells weighing a total of almost 16 tons. In addition, there is another instrument in Gdansk – on the tower of the historical  Main Town Hall – 37 bells and a mobile carillon, consisting of 48 bells. Gdansk is the only city in Poland with carillons on which you can give concerts.

Pomorskie on the World List of the "Memory of the World” Program

The World Register of the Memory of the World Program includes seventeen objects of documentary heritage submitted by Poland:

Registered in 2003: The 21 Gdansk Demands Board from August 1980, kept by the Central Maritime Museum in Gdansk, together with the collection of documents “The Birth of Solidarity – a mass social movement”, owned by the KARTA Center in Warsaw. The Boards of 21 Gdansk Demands from August 1980 is a testimony of a social movement which, using peaceful methods of action, contributed to the collapse of the system of real socialism and the Yalta order. Currently, the board is on permanent exhibition at the European Solidarity Center in Gdansk.

Pomorskie on the Polish List of the UNESCO Memory of the World National Program

Along with the International Register, there are registers created as part of the Memory of the World Program that collect objects of special importance for individual countries or regions of the world. In 2014 in Warsaw, during a ceremony at the Presidental Palace of the Republic of Poland, the Polish National List of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program was inaugurated.

In 2016, as part of the second edition, the following were registered on the Polish National List of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme:

– The Missal of the Teutonic Order from the St. Mary’s Library in Gdansk – a richly decorated 15th-century Teutonic missal used for liturgical purposes in the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gdansk, stored in the Gdansk Library of the Polish Academy of Science.

In 2018, as part of the third edition, 21 objects were registered on the Polish National List of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme:

– Documents related to the construction of the port in Gdynia (1921-1927): The act from 23 September 1922 about  the construction of the port in Gdynia, protocol of the 93rd session of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland of 21 August 1922, shorthand report of the 339th session of the Legislative Parlament from 23rd of September 1922 about the Act on the construction of the port in Gdynia, port projects from 1924 and 1925 and the guest book from 1921-1927 – all obove concern the construction of an independent, modern port as a condition of the security and development of the reborn state of Poland; place of storage: the Archives of New Records and the Museum of the City of Gdynia.

In 2021, as part of the fourth edition, 15 objects were registered on the Polish National List of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, two in our country:

•  The document of Przemysł II from August 15, 1295 – from the resources of the Diocesan Archives in Pelplin.
•  5 unique copies of the works of Jan Heweliusz (1647-1690) from the resources of the Polish Academy of Science in the Gdansk Library.

Pomorskie on the UNESCO World List of Biosphere

Of the eleven sites on the UNESCO World List of Biosphere Reserves, there are two sites in our voivodeship:

 – Słowinski Biosphere Reserve, registered in 1996. The reserve includes coastal lakes, swamps, meadows, coastal forests and a dune strip with shifting dunes between Leba and Czolpin.

 – The Bory Tucholskie Biosphere Reserve, registered in 2010. The Bory Tucholskie Biosphere Reserve is one of the largest forest complexes in Poland. Within the reserve there are a number of valuable natural habitats, for example: acid beech forests, fertile beech forests, marshy birch forests, acidophilic oak forests, lichen forests, transitional and raised bogs, inland sandy grasslands, lobelia lakes, dystrophic lakes, chara lakes, dry heaths. These are ecological systems typical of lowland areas of Central Europe, where there are many rare, relict and protected species of plants and animals.

UNESCO Creative Cities Network

Gdynia in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as the City of Film. The most famous festival is the Polish Feature Film Festival. Its history dates back to 1974, initially in Gdansk, and from 1987 in Gdynia.

As part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Gdynia plans to develop local and international projects. Membership in this elite organization creates an opportunity to establish contacts, exchange experiences and partnerships with other similar cities active in the field of film from around the world.