Museum Fatigue – Exhausting Experiences in Gdansk (Northern Poland & Berlin #53)

It was one of the hardest things I ever wanted to do. The idea of visiting some of Gdansk’s famous museums enthralled me. At the same time, I dreaded the prospect. Gdansk has some of the best museums found anywhere in Europe. The Amber Museum and European Solidarity Center are unique to the city. There is also the recently completed and enormous Museum of the Second World War, the Museum of Gdansk housed in the spectacular Main Town Hall and the multi-story National Maritime Museum. Each is highly regarded. This list does not include the many smaller museums or multiple branches of the city museum. There are also several notable museums just a half hour suburban rail ride away in Sopot and Gdynia. These museums must be among the very best attractions in the area because they are in competition with Gdansk’s Old Town, which attracts the lion’s share of tourists. While Gdansk’s museums are some of the best I have visited, but they are still prone to some of the same problems that plague the visitor experience at every museum.

Feeling of fatigue – Cherubic detail in Old Town Gdansk

Perception & Reality – Confined Spaces
Gdansk has several museums of such size and scale that it is hard to know where to start. Visitors could spend multiple days or longer in these. The problem is most visitors do not have the time or inclination to spend more time indoors under artificial lighting, rather than soaking up the atmospherics of Gdansk’s magnificent Old Town. I can say from experience that wandering around Gdansk’s Old Town was the most memorable part of my visit. Doing the same thing inside a museum would not make sense. Museum galleries all have a start and an end. The same cannot be said of Gdansk’s Old Town. It has limits, but these are defined more by one’s interest and imagination than definite boundaries. The opportunity for aesthetically pleasing experiences is endless.

Conversely, in museums there is less room for serendipity or spontaneity. The environment, just like the content is controlled. This can only go so far in creating a space that makes visitors feel comfortable. Museums are constantly being reimagined to break down barriers between past and present, perception and reality to make them more engaging to visitors. While this is commendable, the museum experience is also dependent upon the visitor’s comfort level. This is not just psychological, but also physical. Even the best museums can be hard to experience for more than a few hours. This is the issue which my travel companion and I would be confronted with in Gdansk.

Atmospherics – Old Town in Gdansk with the Main Town Hall lit by the morning sun

Anticipation & Dread – Museum Must-Sees
There are some things I should not think about before I do them. Visiting museums is one of them because it feels me with competing emotions of anticipation and dread. I know in advance of a visit that a museum – no matter how engaging – often turns into an act of endurance. Being a literal learner means that I am going to spend an inordinate amount of time reading and often rereading exhibits. Doing this is uncomfortable. The longer a visit goes on, the less I learn. The more I read, the less I remember. The law of diminishing returns defines most of my museum visits. Museums have always been must-sees for me. It would be no different in Gdansk, but my experience was much the same as elsewhere.

Any history or architectural enthusiast visiting Gdansk soon learns they are spoiled for choice. Unfortunately, there is too much to see in too little time. My travel companion and I had a limited number of days in the city. This forced us to be discerning in our choices. Since we were unlikely to be back anytime soon, that meant visiting the museums which aligned with our personal interests. We made it a point to visit the Museum of World War II, the Museum of Gdansk, and the National Maritime Museum. The European Solidarity Center was not of great interest to either of us mainly because the events it interprets were within our living memory. The Amber Museum was a no-go mainly because of its narrow focus. We also visited several smaller museums which dealt with aspects of Gdansk’s interwar and wartime history. With this itinerary, it did not take long for museum fatigue to set in despite the fact we avoided spending more than half a day inside any specific museum.

The larger museums delved deeply into history. To someone such as myself, who is obsessed with the history of Eastern Europe and Poland’s place in it, this should have been invigorating. It turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. The more thorough the museum, the more time consuming. This is understandable since any museum trying to represent history in all its complexity is an extremely difficult task. That several of the museums in Gdansk go to extraordinary lengths in covering their subjects should be applauded, but it does not make these museums any less wearying. Both the Museum of World War II and the National Maritime Museum used a chronological approach to outline history. After an hour I began to think of how many eras and events the exhibits would have to go through before it got anywhere close to the end.

Emotionally exhausting – Photos of those killed in the Holocaust at the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk

Physical Education – A Test of Endurance
Perhaps it was my age or attention span that made trying to focus for hours on end so difficult. Standing on hard floors did not help the situation. To get an idea of what this feels like, imagine standing for several hours while reading a good novel. No matter how intriguing the narrative, at a certain point the mind begins to wander and fatigue sets in. Your focus becomes less on history and more on an aching back, knee pain, and muscle stiffness. Add to that a weighty subject such as war and soon the museum experience becomes one of endurance rather than education. This happened to both my friend and I at the Museum of World War II.

After visiting exactly half the exhibit halls we were intellectually and physically spent. Both of us had a blank stare and glazed eyes. We decided to depart after talking about a return visit. That never happened. Mainly because both of us were at our limit with marathon museum visits. The Museum of Gdansk was much better because it was smaller. There were topics I wish it had covered, but that would have meant risking museum fatigue. The National Maritime Museum was vast, magnificent, and overwhelming. The kind of place that is unforgettable until you try to remember exactly what you saw. The most memorable part of these museum visits was the feeling of fatigue. I photographed many of the exhibits, promising myself that I would read them later. That has yet to happen. Probably because I just get tired thinking about it.

Click here for: Going Postal – Battle for the Polish Post Office in Gdansk (Northern Poland & Berlin #54a)