Space for Health. Hospitals in Gdansk 1793-1945

Running 9 July 2026 - 31 January 2027 at Uphagen House in Gdansk, “Space for Health” (Przestrzeń dla zdrowia) shows a century and a half of the city’s hospitals, from 1793 to 1945. The Museum of Gdansk prepared the exhibition together with the Medical University of Gdańsk, in the temporary exhibition rooms on the second floor of the townhouse.

Museum of Gdansk on the exhibition (our translation of the museum’s Polish text):

The exhibition “Space for Health. Hospitals in Gdańsk 1793-1945” presents the development of modern health care on the Motława. The first Gdańsk institution to admit only the sick was the Municipal Lazaret at the Oliwa Gate. In the following decades denominational, military and private hospitals appeared, as well as sanatoria and rehabilitation centres. At the same time methods of treatment and the organisation of patient care developed.

What to expect

The temporary exhibition rooms on the second floor are the former bedrooms and small salon of an 18th-century burgher townhouse. So you see the story of the hospitals in the rooms of a family home, on the same ticket as the burgher interiors of the permanent route.

The exhibition makes a clear argument. According to the museum, over more than a hundred years a dense network of hospitals, clinics, outpatient centres and treatment institutions grew up in Gdansk. In the first half of the 20th century it was among the best developed in this part of Europe.

The objects come from three lenders: the Centrum Historii Medycyny - Szpital Polowy (Centre for the History of Medicine - Field Hospital; Mariusz Wasilewski), the PAN Biblioteka Gdańska (Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences) and Mirosław Podeszwik, a collector of old views of Gdansk. If you want to hear about them from the curators, come to a tour on 12 December or 23 January.

Context

According to Polish Wikipedia, the Hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Szpital Najświętszej Panny Marii) opened in 1853 on ul. Kieturakisa in the Dolne Miasto (Lower Town), run by the Borromean sisters. In 1911 a new, larger municipal hospital opened on ul. Dębinki, equipped with 818 beds.

On the basis of that hospital, built between 1907 and 1911, the Gdańsk Senate began establishing the Academy of Practical Medicine (Akademia Medycyny Praktycznej) in 1935, as English Wikipedia records. It is a good background for an exhibition that the Medical University of Gdańsk co-organises today.

Tickets and time

Ticket: the museum sells no separate ticket for the exhibition. The Museum of Gdansk online shop offers a single admission for this branch, “Zwiedzanie Dom Uphagena” (visiting Uphagen House). So the standard ticket to the house covers the exhibition (standard ticket 26 PLN (about 6 EUR), reduced 19 PLN (about 4 EUR)). The other tickets and discounts are on the museum’s profile.

Day without a charge: at Uphagen House, free admission on Mondays. The exhibition has no ticket of its own, so on that day you do not pay for it either; this is our inference, as the museum says nothing about the exhibition separately.

When: the museum is closed on Tuesdays; it is open longest on Thursday (on Thursdays 10:00-18:00). The lecture on Gdansk hospitals on 19 November falls on a Thursday, so that day you have time to see the exhibition before the lecture.

Where: in the temporary exhibition rooms on the second floor of Uphagen House; the only entrance to the house is from ul. Długa. You reach the floor by wooden spiral stairs, and the building has no lift. The address and directions are on the museum’s profile.

Time needed: the museum says that a visit to the house alone takes at least half an hour. The exhibition fills a few former rooms on one floor, so add about half an hour for it and allow roughly an hour for the whole visit. This is our estimate.

Who it is for: people interested in the history of medicine and in the history of Gdansk from the late 18th century to 1945. Also visitors to Uphagen House, who get a second, quite different story on the same ticket as the burgher interiors. Deaf visitors have two tours in Polish Sign Language on 28 November, and the branch’s website also describes the house in Polish Sign Language (PJM).

Who should skip it: wheelchair users, because only spiral stairs lead to the second floor, and in a wheelchair you can see only the ground floor of the house. Also anyone looking for a large exhibition on the history of medicine to fill an afternoon: this is a few rooms in a burgher townhouse.

Guide: a guided tour of the house, at an extra charge, must be booked several days ahead and is given in Polish only. The curators will tell you more about the exhibition itself on the tours listed below.

Events

• 19 November 2026, 17:00 - lecture by dr hab. Adam Szarszewski, “Od przytułku do kliniki. Jak XIX wiek odmienił gdańskie szpitale” (From almshouse to clinic. How the 19th century transformed Gdańsk hospitals), Uphagen House, free entry - November programme
• 28 November 2026, 12:00 and 14:00 - tour of the exhibition in Polish Sign Language for deaf visitors, free entry, registration required; the exhibition page names Tomasz Świderski as the guide - registration
• 12 December 2026, 12:00 - curators’ tour of the exhibition, led by dr hab. Piotr Paluchowski, dr Magdalena Staręga and dr Ewa Barylewska-Szymańska - details
• 23 January 2027, 12:00 - curator’s tour of the exhibition, led by dr hab. Adam Szarszewski - details

See also

• Uphagen House in Gdansk: the living and utility rooms of an 18th-century townhouse, which you see on the same ticket as the exhibition.
• Other branches of the Museum of Gdansk: Museum of Amber and Museum of the Polish Post Office.

Up-to-date information on the exhibition is on its page on the Museum of Gdansk website.

Museum profile: Uphagen House.