The museum was established on the initiative of the "Military Monuments" section of the "Friends of Hel" Association, thanks to the help and support of the mayor of Hel and the authorities of the Hel municipality. The museum's regulations were approved by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bogdan Zdrojewski, on February 27, 2009
Inside the museum there are over 15 permanent exhibitions and exhibits referring to the military history of the Hel Fortified Area and the Polish Navy.
On November 11, 2006, on Poland's Independence Day, the management of the Coastal Defense Museum adopted a resolution to name the Coastal Defense Museum after Commander Zbigniew Przybyszewski, the heroic defender of Hel, innocently executed in 1952 as a result of a fake trial before a Stalinist military court.
