The history of Gdynia can be divided into several important and distinctive stages. The first stage, which lasted many centuries, at least since the first information about the hamlet, dated the middle of the 13th century, was the period when Gdynia was a small village on the seashore, and since the beginning of the 20th century - serving in the summer season as a holiday destination.

The key stage in the history of Gdynia began after World War I, when Poland regained its independence and when the decision was made to build a seaport next to the village of Gdynia, a port which was to become a window on the world of the reborn state. The beginning of the construction of the port resulted in the creation of a city with a unique modernist centre, which became a candidate property for the UNESCO World Heritage List. The next important stage began with the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 and the German invasion of Poland. At that time, the development of the city was halted, particularly the development of the modernist centre.

The Germans occupied the entire city, displacing its inhabitants and using the modern buildings of the modernist city centre to place their own people. In 1945, after the end of World War II, the former inhabitants returned to Gdynia and new ones arrived, who found employment mainly in the maritime industry. The Polish authorities organised the reconstruction and activation of the port infrastructure destroyed by the Germans.

Local renovations were carried out on the premises of the modernist centre which had not been destroyed, enabling further use of residential and public buildings. In the following years after the war, especially in the 1960s, the construction of other plots in its area was also commenced, where the owners had not managed to build houses before the outbreak of World War II.

In general, the pre-war urban planning was continued. This way, the construction of the modernist city centre, started in the 1920s, was practically completed. In the early 1990s, there were political changes in Poland, and also in Gdynia, which initiated the democratic legal and social order functioning until this day.

As a result of the administrative reform introduced in 1999, Gdynia became a municipality, and at the same time a city with poviat rights. In terms of important events related to the protection of monuments, it is worth mentioning the inclusion of the city centre of Gdynia in the register of monuments in 2007, the sector coinciding with the area of the candidate property on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Following that year, local spatial development and comprehensive renovation plans were prepared, resulting in the President's designation of Gdynia as a Historical Monument in 2015.

In 2019, the Early Modernist City Centre of Gdynia was inscribed on the UNESCO Tentative List and in 2024, by the decision of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, it became the only Polish representative applying for the inclusion on the UNESCO List which contains only 17 entries from Poland.