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Gdynia, Poland’s Interwar Modernist Port City, Wins UNESCO Heritage Status

People walk past the former ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) building, a building on the Gdynia Modernism Trail, at the intersection of 10 Lutego Street and 3 Maja Street in Gdynia, Poland, July 25, 2026. (Reuters)
People walk past the former ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) building, a building on the Gdynia Modernism Trail, at the intersection of 10 Lutego Street and 3 Maja Street in Gdynia, Poland, July 25, 2026. (Reuters)
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Gdynia, Poland’s Interwar Modernist Port City, Wins UNESCO Heritage Status

People walk past the former ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) building, a building on the Gdynia Modernism Trail, at the intersection of 10 Lutego Street and 3 Maja Street in Gdynia, Poland, July 25, 2026. (Reuters)
People walk past the former ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) building, a building on the Gdynia Modernism Trail, at the intersection of 10 Lutego Street and 3 Maja Street in Gdynia, Poland, July 25, 2026. (Reuters)

The center of the modernist Baltic ‌port city of Gdynia, built almost from scratch during the two decades between World War One and World War Two, was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List on Monday as the city celebrates its centenary year.

Nestled north of the historic city of Gdansk, birthplace of Poland's Solidarity labor union movement, and the seaside resort of Sopot, Gdynia was long regarded locally as poor relation to those places, yet the UNESCO award adds it to a 1,273-strong list ranging from Australia's Great Barrier Reef to the Acropolis in Athens.

The UNESCO award is a landmark or area with legal protection for having special ‌cultural or natural ‌value to humanity.

Gdynia is one of the clearest ‌symbols ⁠of the ambitions ⁠of interwar Poland after it regained independence in 1918 following 123 years of partition between Russia, Prussia and Austria-Hungary.

FISHING VILLAGE BECOMES GATEWAY TO THE WORLD

"This is an honor for a city that did not look back, but instead boldly looked to the future — a city built of dreams, courage, and a belief that Poland is capable of creating extraordinary things," Culture Minister Marta ⁠Cienkowska wrote on social media platform X.

Gdynia also reflects the ‌challenges facing the new state, which emerged ‌with only a narrow stretch of Baltic coastline and no major seaport of ‌its own.

To secure access to the sea, Poland chose the fishing village ‌of Gdynia, home to just 1,200 residents in 1920, as the site of a new gateway to the world. By 1939, the population had increased 100 times as people from across the country flocked to the city in search of ‌opportunity and a fresh start.

Architecture historians often compare Gdynia to other cities shaped by interwar modernism and the functionalist districts built in cities including Rotterdam and Brno in the 1920s and 1930s.

Unlike those urban centers, however, Gdynia was constructed almost entirely from scratch around a new seaport, giving it an unusually coherent architectural character and making it one of Europe's most complete examples of a modernist city built in a single generation.

Its center is characterized by streamlined buildings with flat roofs, rounded corners, long horizontal windows and balconies resembling ocean liners, reflecting the city's maritime identity and the era's faith in technology and progress.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is composed of representatives of 21 countries. Other sites recently added to its Heritage list include the D-Day Landings beaches in Normandy.

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Culture

Istanbul Cymbals: From Ottoman Weapon of War to Pulse of Global Music

A worker hammers a cymbal at a workshop in Istanbul on July 30, 2026. (AFP)
A worker hammers a cymbal at a workshop in Istanbul on July 30, 2026. (AFP)
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Istanbul Cymbals: From Ottoman Weapon of War to Pulse of Global Music

A worker hammers a cymbal at a workshop in Istanbul on July 30, 2026. (AFP)
A worker hammers a cymbal at a workshop in Istanbul on July 30, 2026. (AFP)

The rhythmic clanging of hammers on bronze echoes through the Istanbul workshop where three craftsmen are landing blows with astonishing precision to transform featureless metal discs into highly prized handcrafted cymbals.

First used by Ottoman military "mehter" bands to frighten and demoralize the enemy, cymbals were a useful tool for an empire on the warpath.

But it would take the skill of a 17th-century Armenian alchemist called Avedis Zildjian to transform them into a percussion instrument whose exotic sound would first captivate Europe's classical composers and then shape the world of jazz.

Although cymbals existed long before Zildjian, he developed a unique alloy and special process for treating the metals that made them less fragile, winning plaudits in 1623 from the Ottoman sultan who let him set up a workshop.

"It's really hard to make good cymbals because they're consistently being crashed, so to make something that wasn't brittle which could withstand continuous use is quite an achievement," said ethnomusicologist Audrey Wozniak, who specializes in Turkish musical traditions.

The secret was passed down through the generations and although the original Zildjian operation left Istanbul for America in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, others who learned from the Zildjian masters have continued the tradition.

Today, Istanbul remains the center of excellence for cymbals, where a handful of brands still produce hand-hammered bronze using techniques developed more than 400 years ago.

- 'A cymbal's soul' -

"We are producing 100-percent handmade cymbals with traditional methods, without using electricity or gas, only coal and wood," said Mehmet Ozturk, sales rep at Bosphorus Cymbals on Istanbul's northern outskirts, who said casting a cymbal takes up to a week.

First is the casting stage. Most cymbals are made of a copper and tin alloy that is melted into molten bronze which is poured into molds and cooled into disc-shaped blanks.

Moving swiftly, a worker using a long-handled peel places the blanks into the glowing furnace then removes others that are put through a rolling mill in a cycle repeated up to 15 times to compress and spread the metal which is then water tempered.

"Every stage is crucial," said master cymbalsmith Hasan Seker, a burly 56-year-old who co-founded Bosphorus Cymbals in 1996 and was sweating after hauling glowing blanks into and out of the furnace.

"We use copper and tin and one more ingredient which is secret. Even though it's in very small quantities, it gives the cymbal a different character in terms of consistency and sound," he told AFP.

After punching out the raised bell and cutting it to size, what looks like the now recognizable cymbal must undergo the all-important hammering process.

"Not a single blow is random," he said as a trio of craftsmen and their expert struck the cymbals to create the darker, more complex tones so prized by jazz drummers.

This is where a man's emotional state is poured into his work, said Seker, who began working in the trade aged 12 as a summer job.

"When someone is hammering, he might hit softly, then something comes to mind, he gets angry and hits harder. Those variations in the metal's surface, the reservations, the tension patterns diversify the sound. In a way, he gives the cymbal its soul."

Over the years, Seker has met countless grateful musicians, some of whom come on "a pilgrimage" to the workshop whose grubby walls are lined with ageing posters of jazz drummers like Jeff Hamilton, Stanton Moore and Ari Hoenig.

- 'Every one is different' -

Inside Nardis Jazz Club, a dimly lit venue with an intimate feel in the shadow of Istanbul's Galata Tower, a jazz trio is rehearsing ahead of an evening show with a singer.

For drummer Derin Bayhan, he would only ever use Istanbul-made cymbals because they're "100 percent handmade" and each one has a unique sound.

"Even if you bought two from the same series, the same weight and structure, the two cymbals wouldn't perfectly match. Because it's handmade, it's basically an adventure," the 42-year-old told AFP.

"So you search for one and when you find it, no one else will have it: that sound is yours."

As to why the Istanbul tradition remains so popular among jazz musicians despite the Zildjian family's move to America where they set up a factory, jazz historian Berk Ozler said it was the search for uniqueness.

"Mass production started when Zildjian went to the USA whereas the ones that stayed in Istanbul were handcrafted and still are. Jazz musicians chase after that uniqueness so that's why they are very valuable."

Culture

Saudi Heritage Commission Expands National Urban Heritage Register with 9,586 New Sites

The Saudi Heritage Commission logo
The Saudi Heritage Commission logo
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Saudi Heritage Commission Expands National Urban Heritage Register with 9,586 New Sites

The Saudi Heritage Commission logo
The Saudi Heritage Commission logo

The Heritage Commission announced the registration of 9,586 urban heritage sites in the National Urban Heritage Register in two consecutive phases.

 

The first phase included 3,000 sites, followed by an additional 6,586, bringing the total number of registered sites across Saudi Arabia’s regions to 59,586, SPA reported.

The registered sites in the two phases were distributed across several Saudi regions, including 169 sites in Riyadh Region, 1,755 in Makkah Region, 23 in Madinah Region, 13 in Qassim Region, 19 in Eastern Region, 4,363 in Aseer Region, two in Tabuk Region, 21 in Hail Region, one in Northern Borders Region, 673 in Najran Region, and 2,547 in Al-Baha Region.

The Heritage Commission urged citizens and residents to report unregistered urban heritage sites or any practices that may compromise their integrity through the archaeological report service, the commission’s official social media channels, by visiting one of its branches or offices across the Kingdom, or by contacting the Unified Security Operations Center at 911.

Culture

Red Sea Museum Transforms Learning into Experiences of Discovery and Creativity

The program’s educational dimension extends to archaeology, the environment, and the protection of underwater cultural heritage - SPA
The program’s educational dimension extends to archaeology, the environment, and the protection of underwater cultural heritage - SPA
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Red Sea Museum Transforms Learning into Experiences of Discovery and Creativity

The program’s educational dimension extends to archaeology, the environment, and the protection of underwater cultural heritage - SPA
The program’s educational dimension extends to archaeology, the environment, and the protection of underwater cultural heritage - SPA

The Red Sea Museum in Historic Jeddah takes visitors on a journey this August that goes beyond viewing its collections to engaging with the Red Sea as a space for discovery and learning.

The program offers a range of activities that take visitors from the screen to the depths of the sea. As part of the Sea Cinema program, the museum hosted a screening of Finding Nemo on August 7, offering a cinematic experience that evoked the wonder of the ocean and its adventures, SPA reported.

The program’s educational dimension extends to archaeology, the environment, and the protection of underwater cultural heritage through a panel discussion on August 15, addressing the relationship between preserving archaeological evidence and protecting the marine environment.

Moreover, the museum offers children a dedicated space for creativity through the “From Waste to Wonder” workshop, which encourages them to transform used items into new ideas and experiences.

The Red Sea Lab stands out as one of the key experiences in the August program, turning the museum into an interactive laboratory for children aged 10 to 14 from August 25 to 29.

The program brings together science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), allowing participants to explore the Red Sea from a scientific perspective, from its geological formation and biodiversity to coral reefs, ocean chemistry, and water quality, as well as exploration, mapping, and environmental conservation technologies.

The August program coincides with the final days of the “Sunken Treasures: The Maritime Heritage of the Red Sea” exhibition, which runs through August 15.