8 Beautiful Palaces in Warsaw
With a history over 700 years old, Poland’s capital has dozens of historical palaces. Join us on a tour of eight particularly notable ones, highlighting the architecture, surroundings and history of outstanding buildings such as the Palace on the Isle, the Rabbit House and Krasiński Palace.
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Królikarnia, a view of the western façade, photo: Sławomir Kamiński / Agencja Gazeta
We start off with Królikarnia (the Rabbit House), one of the most charming places in Warsaw. The name of this classicist palace in 113a Puławska Street echoes the fact that this building stands in an area that in the 18th century served as a wildlife park inhabited by rabbits. After the wildlife park ceased to exist, an Italian count called Karol de Valery-Thomatis built the Rabbit House as his residence. The building was constructed in the years 1782-1786 according to a design by the renowned Italian architect Domenico Merlini, which referenced the famed renaissance Villa Rotonda in Vicenza. Among the Rabbit House’s most characteristic elements is its sightly dome topped with an artichoke-like ornament.
After being badly damaged in World War II, the Rabbit House was rebuilt in 1965. Ever since, the palace has been the seat of the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture, a public institution open to visitors:
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In Królikarnia, we organize exhibitions, performances, meetings, conferences, film screenings, concerts, and outdoor events in a romantic park which surrounds the palace. Our museum houses the country’s largest collection of sculpture, comprising works from the 15th century to the present day.
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From krolikarnia.mnw.art.pl, the official site of the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture
Interestingly, some of this museum’s sculptures are permanently located outdoors, in the aforementioned park that surrounds the Rabbit House. When the weather is pleasant, this wonderful green area attracts plenty of Varsovians seeking to relax. It’s worth adding that the Rabbit House is magnificently located on the top edge of the Warsaw escarpment, a sloping piece of terrain that runs through the entire city. The terrace next to the palace’s eastern façade overlooks the sizeable slope of this escarpment, offering an awesome panoramic view of Warsaw.
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Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów, Warsaw, photo: Arkadiusz Ziółek / East News
Another beautiful Warsaw palace housing a museum can be found at 10 Stanisława Kostki Potockiego Street. There stands the baroque Wilanów Palace which used to be the summer residence of Poland’s king Jan III Sobieski (1629-1696).
This residence in Wilanów, one of Warsaw’s present-day districts, was initially a modest manor, but in the 1680s a reconstruction process began which turned this building into a proper royal palace. The new edifice was designed by the Polish architect Augustyn Wincenty Locci and its construction lasted until Sobieski’s death in 1696. The remodelled building was laid out entre cour et jardin (‘between forecourt and garden’ in French) to resemble a French baroque palace. This means there’s a large courtyard in front of Wilanów Palace’s main façade and a garden at the back. The building’s wings, which match the style of the central section, were added in the years 1720-1729. Wilanów Palace’s lavish outsides areas sport many decorative elements, such as reliefs showing scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Since 1805, Wilanów Palace has served as a museum, nowadays called the Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów. Among its many splendid delights, you’ll find breathtaking historical interiors as well as a vast collection of Italian, French, Flemish and German paintings. Aside from the aforementioned garden in the back, which is a marvellous baroque park picturesquely situated nearby a lake, Wilanów Palace has plenty of other green areas, including a magnificent rose garden and an equally appealing English-Chinese garden.
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Palace on the Isle in Warsaw’s Łazienki Park, photo: Mariusz Prusaczyk / PAP
Next up we have another royal residence, the iconic Pałac na Wyspie (Palace on the Isle) which served as the summer home of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732-1798). It stands in the large and beautiful Łazienki Park in the heart of Warsaw.
Before the Palace on the Isle was given its current classicist shape, it was a small baroque pavilion known as the Bath. The Bath, built at the turn of the 18th century, took its name from the fact that it housed a bathing room styled as a grotto. Stanisław August acquired the Bath in 1764 and transformed it into his residence in the years 1772-1790. The green areas around this building were turned into the amazing Łazienki Park.
The Palace on the Isle was designed by the aforementioned Domenico Merlini, who served as royal architect, and by Johann Christian Kammsetzer, an architect and interior designer. The building’s name reflects the fact that it is picturesquely located on an islet between two ponds. Two bridges adorned with colonnades connect the Palace on the Isle with the main shoreline. Among the building’s other notable elements are its impressive porticoes. Apparently, they inspired many Polish noblemen to add porticoes (or at least porches) to their own residencies, making a big impact on Polish residential architecture.
The Palace on the Isle was devastated in World War II but fortunately was reconstructed afterwards. It has served as a public museum since 1960. Visitors to the palace can see, among other things, Stanisław August’s extensive collection of paintings:
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Today, 140 works of art from the King’s collection are on display in the Palace on the Isle, and are exhibited in line with eighteenth-century principles. The most important works are: Anton R. Mengs’ Portrait of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams […] Jacob Jordaens the Elder’s Satyr Playing a Flute, Jan Victors’ Jacob and Esau, and Angelica Kauffmann’s Portrait of Princess Giuliana Pubblicola Santacroce.
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From lazienki-krolewskie.pl, the official site of the Łazienki Park
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Belweder Palace in Warsaw, 2016, photo: Włodzimierz Wasyluk / Forum
The attractive Belweder Palace stands on the western edge of Łazienki Park, on top of a 25-metre-high slope belonging to the Warsaw escarpment. Its name, which alludes to the amazing view from the top of the slope, is derived from the Italian expression bel vedere which means ‘beautiful view.’
This shapely classicist palace, whose address is 54/56 Belwederska Street, has a long history dating back possibly all the way to the 16th century. That’s when the residence of Poland’s queen Bona Sforza may have stood in Belewder’s place (historians aren’t certain about this). Without a doubt, a residential building was raised in the spot in question in the mid-17th century by the nobleman Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac. This building was later reconstructed into a modestly-sized baroque villa and came into the possession of Stanisław August. In the years 1818-1822, this villa was remodelled into Belweder Palace, according to a design by the renowned Polish architect Jakub Kubicki.
Belweder Palace has always been linked to people of power, both ones praised and condemned by history. It’s first inhabitant was the grand duke Konstantin Pavlovich who in the early 19th century was the infamous military governor of Russia’s partition of Poland. Among the many other politicians and rulers that lived in Belweder are Poland’s president in the Interwar period Stanisław Wojciechowski and Marshall Józef Piłsudski, who was instrumental in carving out Poland’s independence in 1918.
Today the palace in question is one of the residencies of the President of Poland and used for state affairs. Therefore it is not open to the public. But you can still get a good look at Belweder Palace from Łazienki Park or Belwederska Street! Like in the case of the Palace on the Isle, porticoes are among Belweder’s most characteristic architectural elements. The latter building has two of them, both of which are Ionic and four-column.
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Krasiński Palace in Warsaw, photo: Marcin Morawski / East News
Another palace located next to a fabulous park. Behind the impressive Krasiński Palace at 5 Krasińskich Square, you can find the magnificent Krasiński Garden. One of the most popular places in this park is the picturesque pond sporting an intriguing offshore sculpture of five fishermen by Leon Machowski.
Krasiński Palace was built in the years 1688–1699 according to a design by the eminent Dutch architect Tylman van Gameren. This sizeable baroque marvel was constructed as the residence of the nobleman Jan Dobrogost Krasiński and is considered one of the finest examples of a nobleman’s palace in Warsaw. Among the most noteworthy decorations of this building are the two tympanums embellishing the front and rear façades. The reliefs in these tympanums depict the ancient Roman military commander Marcus Valerius who was supposedly an ancestor of the Krasiński family. According to legend, Valerius once defeated a Gaul leader in a fight after being aided by a raven:
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The raven attacking the Gaul leader, the key moment of the victory, is shown in the tympanum in the front; the tympanum topping the façade facing the garden presents the triumph of Marcus Valerius who is sitting in a chariot […] with a raven on his helmet.
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From isztuka.edu.pl, trans. MK
Throughout its long history, Krasiński Palace has served many purposes, for example, as the seat of Poland’s Supreme Court in the Interwar Period. It was badly damaged in World War II but was rebuilt in 1961 and from then on was used by the National Library to store especially valuable, historical volumes. The edifice at hand is currently undergoing a renovation which will turn it into a generally accessible exhibition space managed by the National Library.
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Primate’s Palace in Warsaw, photo: Adam Ławnik / East News
Less than ten minutes away on foot from Krasiński Palace, at 13/15 Senatorska Street, stands the beautiful Pałac Prymasowski (Primate’s Palace). The construction of this building began all the way back in the late 16th century when the prospective Primate of Poland Wojciech Baranowski decided to build a residence for himself. At this point it might be worth adding that, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a primate is ‘a bishop who has precedence in a province, a group of provinces, or a nation’.
Over time the original building raised by Baranowski (of which little is known) underwent a series of reconstructions; it was given its current form in the years 1777-1783. That’s when the Primate’s Palace was turned into a classicist edifice by two Polish architects: Efraim Szreger and Michał Jerzy Poniatowski. During the remodelling overseen by Szreger and Poniatowski, the Primate’s Palace gained its characteristic curved wings that create its appealing crescent shape.
From the time it was erected until the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, it did, as the name implies, serve as the residence of the Primates of Poland. Afterwards it housed various institutions – in the Interwar period, for example, it was the seat of reborn Poland’s Ministry of Agriculture & Agricultural Reforms. The Primate’s Palace was badly damaged in World War II but was rebuilt in the 1950s. Nowadays this building houses an elegant hotel and a casino, and therefore has a sort of James Bond vibe. It’s worth adding that at the back of the hotel, there’s an enchanting garden.
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Czapski Palace, the seat of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, photo: Jan Morek / Forum
The history of Czapski Palace begins in the first half of the 17th century when a wooden manor owned by the noble Radziwiłł family stood in its place. The original construction was remodelled into a brick palace by the 18th century and the building often changed owners. In the 1730s, it came into the possession of the noble Czapski family who reconstructed it in the years 1752-1765, giving it its current form. Unfortunately the name of the architect responsible for this successful remodelling appears to be unknown. Later on, the building was the home of Zygmunt Krasiński, one of Poland’s most important Romantic poets. Czapski Palace was seriously damaged in World War II and was rebuilt in 1959. Since then, it has served as the home of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Recently it underwent a renovation which turned it into a publically accessible space for cultural events managed by the academy.
Among the most characteristic elements of Czapski Palace’s architecture are its alkierze or corner extensions. An alkierz is a feature typical of Polish architecture:
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A distinct, corner part of a building, covered with a separate roof; the corner extension evolved from mediaeval defence towers; [it is] typical of Polish manors dating from the 16th through the 19th centuries and 17th century palaces.
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From encyklopedia.pwn.pl, trans. MK
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Sugar Producers Palace, the seat of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, photo: Bartek Syta
The final palace on our list is the modestly-sized but charming Pałacyk Cukrowników (Sugar Producers Palace) at 25 Mokotowska Street. This neo-rococo building has a distinctly urban character as it is squeezed into a row of densely packed tenement houses in downtown Warsaw. Even though the Sugar Producers Palace stands in a very built-up street, its plot has enough room for not only the main building but also for two small annexes and a little courtyard where you can find an impressive oak tree.
The Sugar Producers Palace’s history goes back to the 1870s when a small manor was built in its spot for Kazimiera Ćwierczakiewiczowa. In the early 20th century, this manor became an office for a group of sugar-producing companies from the town of Lublin which decided to remodel the building. The reconstruction was overseen by the Polish architect Tadeusz Zieliński and was completed in 1926. Thanks to Zieliński, the building in question gained its current impressive form. In the 1930s, the architect Antoni Jawornicki adapted the Sugar Producers Palace to become a residence for Mieczysław Broniewski, a specialist in the field of sugar production. That’s when the roofs of the palace’s annexes were adorned with the characteristic sculptures of cupids facing Mokotowska Street. There are two of these cupids – one over each annex. The cupid located further to the south is accompanied by bunnies, whereas the other one is shown alongside calves.
After World War II, the Sugar Producers Palace served various purposes, such as the seat of the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since the year 2000, it has been the headquarters of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, which promotes Polish culture across the world. Interestingly, AMI is the parent organisation of… Culture.pl! So if you happen to be nearby the Sugar Producers Palace, you may run into some Culture.pl staff members going there on official business.
Well, it’s time to officially end our tour of beautiful Warsaw palaces. If you’re ever in Warsaw do try to take a look at them in person!
Written by Marek Kępa, Jun 21
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