The builder of Port of Gdynia celebrates his birthday

Gdynia celebrated the 158th birthday of port builder and designer Tadeusz Wenda. The event included a birthday cake, music from the inter-war period, dancing and quizzes. The Museum of the City of Gdynia has prepared a programme for a city walk-about in the footsteps of Tadeusz Wenda.

Gdynia City Council on the 95th anniversary of granting city rights and the 100th anniversary of the commencement of port construction, proclaimed 2021 to be the Year of Tadeusz Wenda. On this occasion, a number of events have been planned to commemorate the engineer and his contribution to the city.

On 29 May, a monument to the builder of Gdynia’s port was unveiled on Rybackie pier, at spur no. 1 in Arkadiusz Rybicki Street. This is where the fans of Tadeusz Wenda met on 23 July to celebrate his birthday. The reception was attended by the engineer’s granddaughter, Hanna Wenda-Uszyńska, and was held in a beautiful seaside setting. It is likely that the view of the Bay of Gdańsk was often admired by the engineer when he supervised work on the construction of the port.

There were also additional attractions provided by the Museum of the City of Gdynia. Guests could take part in a quiz testing their knowledge on the life of Tadeusz Wenda and in a walk around the city following in the engineer’s footsteps.

Throughout the year, the Museum of the City of Gdynia is committed to presenting the profile of this remarkable man. They also prepared a website dedicated to the engineerwww.TadeuszWenda.pl. They also developed a proposal for a city walk-about following in his footsteps. This is a great way to spend your leisure time and search for the mementoes of the engineer  in Gdynia. We will find out where the engineer lived at the time when he supervised the construction of the port, the route he took to get to work, and we will also learn about his subsequent workplace. The walk begins at Washington Street and ends at Morska Street. The entire route is 3.5 km long, so it is accessible for everyone. You can download the guide to the walkabout from the website and visit the places the engineer was associated with and where he walked. Many of them have changed dramatically since his time. New buildings have been erected in many places, as Sea City is now being built on land that was formerly occupied by the shipyard. On 14 August this year, it will be possible to walk this route with a group led by the creator of the guide to the walk-about – Dawid Gajos accompanied by Dagmara Płaza-Opacka. You will probably be able to discover many interesting facts about Tadeusz Wenda and his beautiful adventure with Gdynia.

photo/www.gdynia.pl/Magdalena Śliżewska