Blue Lamb Granary (Archaeological Museum in Gdansk)

What to expect

The Blue Lamb Granary (Spichlerz Błękitny Baranek) is the only granary on Gdansk’s Granary Island that came through the destruction of the Second World War well, and today it houses a branch of the Archaeological Museum in Gdansk at ul. Chmielna 53. You come here for Gdansk in the age of the Hanseatic League: four permanent exhibitions tell the story of the city, of the Hanse and of the island itself.

The exhibitions fill two floors. The first floor holds “Miasto pod miastem” (City beneath the City) and “Średniowieczna uliczka hanzeatycka” (A Medieval Hanseatic Street), the second “Gdańsk w świecie Hanzy” (Gdansk in the World of the Hanse) and an exhibition on the history of Granary Island. The museum speaks of more than a thousand original historic objects, and in a Facebook post of 19 August 2026 of almost 1,200.

Visitors rate the place highly: on Google Maps the granary scores 4.7 out of 5 from 677 reviews. It has been open to visitors again since May 2021, when, as the Trojmiasto.pl news site reported, it returned after a long break.

Who it suits: anyone curious about medieval Gdansk and the Hanseatic League, and families. Children up to the age of seven enter free, and the family ticket covers two adults and one to three children. Younger children cannot visit on their own: until the age of 13 they must be under the constant care of an adult throughout the visit.

Allow an hour to an hour and a half. According to the museum, a calm walk through all the rooms takes at least an hour, and the museum itself advises starting your visit about an hour and a half before closing time. Skip it if you only have half an hour between other stops: that is too little for four exhibitions.

Tips

• Free day. The exhibitions offer free admission on Thursdays, but free tickets are issued only at the museum’s ticket desk; you cannot get one online.
• Family ticket at the desk only. Standard and reduced tickets (standard ticket 14 PLN (about 3 EUR), reduced 10 PLN (about 2 EUR)) can be bought at the ticket desk or online; the family ticket, for up to five people, and all free tickets are available only at the ticket desk.
• For an afternoon visit, choose the weekend. The museum is closed on Mondays, and from Tuesday to Friday it closes earlier than on Saturdays and Sundays (on Fridays 8:30-16:00, on Saturdays 9:00-17:00). Before a visit over the holidays, check the practical information box for the days the museum is closed.
• Lift: phone before you visit. All four exhibitions are on the first and second floors, and the lift stands right by the entrance, but the museum’s website states (without a date) that the lift in the granary is broken and is being repaired. Before arriving with a wheelchair or a pushchair, call 58 320 31 88; the same number or the doorbell will help when the main door is closed, for example in autumn and winter.
• Step-free toilets. The guest toilets are on the ground floor, reaching them involves no stairs, and one of them is adapted for people with reduced mobility.
• Guided tours in Polish or English. A tour costs the admission ticket plus a surcharge, higher for English, and must be booked in advance by phone on 58-326-23-24.
• Guide dogs and Polish Sign Language (PJM). You can come in with a guide dog, the lift buttons are marked in Braille, and you can borrow a magnifier at no charge; there is no induction loop and no large print. A visit with a Polish Sign Language interpreter must be arranged at least several days in advance.
• Cameras and small pets. You may take photos and film for non-commercial purposes, as long as you do not disrupt the visit or endanger the collections. A dog or cat of up to 15 kg may come in with you in a carrier, in a bag or in your arms.

Getting there

• Address: ul. Chmielna 53, 80-748 Gdańsk, on Granary Island.
• By public transport: according to the ZTM Gdańsk timetable data, the nearest stops are “Chmielna 04” (about 115 m; lines 112, 138, 166, 178, 186, 212, C80, N8, N9), “Chmielna 01” (about 152 m; lines 8, 9) and “Chmielna 03” (about 154 m; lines 112, 138, 166, 178, 186, 212, C80, N8).
• Stops further away: “Chmielna 02” (about 162 m; lines 8, 9), “Żabi Kruk 01” (about 273 m; lines 8, 9) and “Ożdżyńskiego 01” (about 275 m; lines 106, 111, N78, N9).

Nearby

Within about 700 m of the granary as the crow flies lie, among others, these museums. A visit here takes at least an hour, so it is easy to add one of them on the same day:

• Baszta Tajemnic - Wax Museum, ul. Motławska 14, 80-750 Gdańsk - about 380 m as the crow flies.
• Artus Court (Branch of the Museum of Gdansk), Długi Targ 43/44, 80-831 Gdańsk - about 430 m as the crow flies.
• Maritime Culture Centre (Branch of the National Maritime Museum), ul. Tokarska 21-25, 80-888 Gdańsk - about 690 m as the crow flies.

Background

When you enter the Blue Lamb, you enter an interior that survived the war. After Soviet forces bombed Gdansk in 1945, the granary remained the only historic storage building on Granary Island that kept not only its facade but also its beams and floor structure. According to Wikipedia, it is also the only Gdansk granary rebuilt using original period materials.

The name is almost four hundred years old: the German “Blaue Lamm”, meaning precisely Blue Lamb, first appears in the sources in 1631. The Archaeological Museum in Gdansk took the granary into its care in 1995 and by 2008 had strengthened its foundations and repaired its timber load-bearing structure, roof truss and roof covering.

After a long break, the building reopened to visitors on Thursday 27 May 2021; according to Trojmiasto.pl, the renovation cost over 7 million PLN.