Location: Plac Zamkowy 4
Tel. 022 355 5170
Bus: 100, 116, 175, 178, 180, 190, 195, 222, 503
Trolley: 13, 23, 26, 32
Open: 10am- 4pm Tue- Sat
11am- 4pm Sun (separate tickets for Royal Apartments and Parliament)
Closed: Oct- Apr: Mon, public holidays
Royal and Grand Apartments
Open: 10am- 6pm Tue- Sat
11am- 6pm Sun- Mon
Closed: Oct- Apr: after 4pm, 1 Jan, Easter, q May, Corpus Christi
Royal Castle in Warsaw - Baroque-Classicist royal
castle located in Warsaw at Plac Zamkowy 4. It serves as a museum and
representative.
Originally the residence of the dukes of Mazovia,
and from the 16th century the seat of the authorities of the First
Republic: the king and the Seym (the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate).
In its long history, the Royal Castle was plundered and
devastated many times by the Swedish, Brandenburg, German and Russian
armies. In the nineteenth century, after the fall of the November
Uprising, it was intended for the needs of the Russian administration.
During World War I, the residence of the German Governor General. In the
years 1920–1922 the seat of the Chief of State, in the years 1926–1939
the residence of the President of the Republic of Poland. Burned and
plundered by the Germans in 1939, completely destroyed in 1944.
In 1965, the surviving fragments of the castle and the building of the
Royal Library, Pod Blachą Palace and Kubicki Arcades were entered in the
register of monuments. The reconstruction of the castle, carried out in
the years 1971–1984, was managed by the Citizens' Committee for the
Reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw. In 1979, a museum was
established in the castle, establishing the state cultural institution
The Royal Castle in Warsaw - Monument of National History and Culture,
from 2014 operating under the name of the Royal Castle in Warsaw -
Museum. The residence of the Kings and the Republic of Poland. In 1980,
the Royal Castle and the Old Town were inscribed on the UNESCO World
Heritage List, in 1994, together with the historic city complex with the
Royal Route and the Royal Wilanów Palace, it was recognized as a
historical monument.
Construction
The erection of a wooden and earth
stronghold on the Vistula embankment at the mouth of the Kamionka River
(now the line of the W-Z route) was associated with the founding
(location) of the city of Warsaw. Both initiatives are attributed to
Prince Bolesław II of Mazovia, who ruled in the years 1294–1313. The
stronghold (one of the few on the central line of the Vistula) served as
a defense against the city and the transport across the river called
Kamion.
XIV century
In the first half of the fourteenth
century, the original castle-watchtower was transformed into the center
of power of the Dukes of Mazovia. During the reign of Fr. Trojden I
(1314-1341) became the seat of the castellan of Warsaw and one of the
ruler's residences. He was promoted to the rank of the chief town of the
district during the reign of Fr. Casimir I (1349–1374). Gradually, brick
buildings were introduced, transforming the stronghold into a castle. In
the line of the embankments: in the south - a defensive-residential
Great Tower (Latin: Turris Magna), in the north - a gatehouse with a
drawbridge called the Crane; The first (south-eastern) section of the
perimeter wall was also built.
Probably after the slope had
slipped as a result of the flood, in the 1980s Duke Janusz I the Elder
(1374–1429) included the remaining area of the stronghold within the
erected city walls and built the first brick residence, the so-called .
Tenement house (Latin Lapidea).
XV century
After securing the
so-called The dam of the castle slope and the erection of the entire
perimeter of the city walls, Rev. Janusz I the Elder started the
expansion of his Warsaw seat. The most important investment was the
construction of a new, magnificent residence, the so-called The Great
House or Court (Latin Domus Magna, Curia Maior); a three-story Gothic
building (47.5 x 14.5 m) with a facade and gables decorated with
recesses. In the ground floor there was a representative court and
assembly hall (Latin: Palatium, Stuba Magna), and on the first floor, a
prince's apartment (Latin: Habitaculum superior). From the town side,
after the castle moat was filled in, a small brick building of the
Warsaw land court, called the Szopa, was built.
In 1426, the
Polish king and the highest Lithuanian prince, Władysław Jagiełło,
visited the prince's residence in Warsaw for the first time. Until the
end of the 15th century, in the northern part of the manor area, near
Kanonia, a complex of residential buildings called the Lesser Manor or
the Garden (Latin Curia Minor) was built. Traditionally, it was occupied
by mothers, wives and sisters of the Dukes of Mazovia, who often acted
as regents. Through the ducal bathhouse and kitchen by the eastern wall,
it was connected by a porch with the Great House (Court).
XVI
century
In 1526, the last Mazovian vassal died childless - Prince
Janusz III and the Czersk-Warsaw district was incorporated into the
Kingdom of Poland. King Zygmunt I, who came to Warsaw for the first
time, took the oath of the Mazovian Sejm and took possession of the
Castle. The royal governor (vicesgerent) and the Warsaw starosta
permanently resided there. In 1529, the general parliament debated in
the Castle for the first time; in 1544, the royal couple resided here
for two months.
After the death of Sigismund I in 1548, Queen
Bona moved from Wawel to her widowed (widowed) estates. Together with
her daughters: Zofia, Anna, Katarzyna and Izabela (the Hungarian queen),
she lived in the Lesser Manor of the Castle. After the queen left for
Italy in 1556, King Zygmunt August began to visit Warsaw and convene
parliaments (1556/7, 1563/64). Simultaneously with the start of work on
the Polish-Lithuanian union in 1563, a decision was made to expand the
Castle. However, it began only in 1569. By virtue of a resolution of the
Lublin Sejm (1569), Warsaw and the Castle were recognized as permanent
places of assembly for the Sejm of the Republic of Poland.
The
expansion of the Castle, carried out according to the design of the
architect Giovanni Battista Quadro by 1571, slightly changed its shape,
much more the interior. It included the reconstruction of the former
seat of the king - the Grand House, into a building housing new
Renaissance Sejm interiors: a vaulted three-pillar chamber of deputies
on the ground floor and a senatorial chamber with a coffered ceiling on
the first floor; erection of a new residence adjacent to the Great House
from the north, the so-called Of the New Royal House with a gazebo
viewing room on the second floor and a round "curly sunrises" tower from
the west; expansion of Anna Jagiellonka's residence in the Lesser Manor.
King Zygmunt August settled in the Castle at the end of 1568, he left it
shortly before his death in 1572.
During the reign of Stefan
Batory and Sigismund III, until his death in 1596, Queen Anna Jagiellon
was the permanent resident of the castle.
XVII century
Almost from the beginning of the reign of King
Sigismund III Vasa, Warsaw and the Castle, due to their convenient
location, were the place of longer stays of the royal court. From here,
Sigismund III undertook trips to Sweden, sailing down the Vistula to
Gdańsk (1593-94, 1598), he also called parliaments here, to which he
traveled from Krakow. After the death of Anna Jagiellon, the king gained
the freedom to dispose of the Castle; Swedish problems kept him here
longer. After 1598, the desire to regain the native crown became an
important goal of Sigismund's policy. In such circumstances, a decision
was made to move the manor house permanently to Warsaw and to
substantially expand the castle.
Recent research as the author of
the spatial concept of the building indicates the royal architect Santi
Gucci; as the builder of Giacoppa Rodondo and Mattea Castello as the
creator of the baroque finish of the body. The project assumed the
construction of a representative pentagonal building with an internal
courtyard with proto-baroque style features, based on perpendicular axes
marked by three gates and a tower containing stairs to the royal
apartments. The basic construction and adaptation works of the old
buildings were carried out in the years 1600–1606 by the bricklaying and
stonemasonry team of Giacoppa Rodondo. He also managed further finishing
works until 1613.
From 1605, after another reconstruction of the
interior of the Grand House, parliaments began to gather again in the
Castle. In the fall of 1611 (after leaving Krakow in 1609 and a longer
stay in Lithuania), the entire royal family moved to the Castle along
with the court and offices of the royal and royal offices. The first
important event was the presentation to the king and the states of the
Republic of Poland in the Senator's Hall of the Castle of the captured
Tsar Wasyl Szujski and his brothers by Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski. The
ceremony inaugurated the residential functions of Warsaw and the Castle.
Further finishing works were carried out in the years 1614-1619 by
the architect Matteo Castelli brought from Rome. Probably his work is
the monumental west facade of the Castle with a central tower (Latin:
Nova Turris Regia) and corner towers, as well as staircases and
stonework (gate portals, rusticated corners), giving the Castle's
architecture stylish features of Roman Baroque. 18th century bastion
fortifications from the side of the Vistula River and the arrangement of
gardens on the escarpment The castle gained a fashionable appearance of
a palazzo in fortezza. Next investments were made in the years 1637-1643
by king Władysław IV. The works were supervised by the court architects
Constante Tencalla, Giovanni Battista Gisleni and Agostino Locci. The
eastern façade was enriched with an arcaded gallery and the Gazebo Tower
housing the new royal office and the palace of Prince Charles Ferdinand
Vasa built on the northern bastion. The front courtyard was given a
representative St. John's Gate; Sigismund's column was erected at the
city gate. The interior of the southern wing has been enriched with
rooms and devices of the so-called court theater. The opera house, and
the official royal suite with a representative Marble Room, the decor of
which (multi-colored marble, paintings and a "fireplace like a
fountain") was the apotheosis of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and
its rulers. The Polish Vasa, in addition to the rich library and the
state archives, gathered at the Castle impressive collections of
sculptures, paintings, European and Eastern fabrics, and decorative
arts.
The years 1655–1657 - the period of the Swedish Deluge and
the three occupations of Warsaw by the Swedish and Transylvanian armies,
brought plunder and devastation of the interior of the Castle. The
Swedes took away not only a significant part of the art collections
gathered in the Castle (including 200 paintings and plafonds from 5
rooms), but also permanent interior fittings (marble floors, fireplaces)
and garden architecture (sculptures, fountains). The palace of Karol
Ferdinand burned down and the Clock Tower (Sigismund Tower) was damaged.
After returning from exile, Jan Kazimierz and Ludwika Maria lived in a
suburban palace - Villa Regia - from that time called Kazimierzowski.
Relatively quickly, however, the main interior reconstruction was
carried out and the castle was restored to residential and public
functions. In the summer of 1658, the first Sejm was held in the Castle
after the break. The castle was the place of court and state ceremonies
(the wedding and wedding of Jan Sobieski with Maria Kazimiera d'Arquien,
swearing in of the Hadziak settlement in 1659, staging of Corneille's
"Cyda" in the castle theater in 1660, triumph of hetmans Stanisław
Rewery Potocki and Stefan Czarniecki at the Sejm of 1661 year). In 1659,
a long tenement house, the so-called Boratynówka housing stalls, and in
1667 a major renovation of the damaged helmet of the Clock Tower was
carried out. After his abdication in 1668, Jan Kazimierz took to France
some of the remaining art collections (including 150 paintings and 88
tapestries).
Another elect - king Michał (Korybut Wiśniowiecki) initially resided
in the Ujazdowski Castle. It was only after the interior was redecorated
and married to Princess Eleonora of Austria in 1670 that the royal
couple moved to the former Vasa apartments.
The second of the
"kings of his countrymen", Jan III (Sobieski), reigning in the years
1674–1696, the owner of great goods in Ruthenia, came to Warsaw mainly
on the occasion of the Seyms. He shared several-month stays in the city
between the Castle and a new suburban residence - Wilanów. However, a
number of investments were carried out in the Castle. In place of the
Gazebo Tower, a three-story pavilion of the representative royal
bathroom was built. The royal suite was enlarged. In the northern wing,
the Królewiczowskie Rooms were converted into the family apartment of
the eldest son, Jakub Sobieski. Sejm interiors underwent
transformations. Before 1679, the Chamber of Deputies was moved from the
ground floor of the Great House to the first floor of the south-west
corner of the Castle. The Senatorial Chamber received a new stucco
decoration of the wall with a throne and a marble floor. The hall was
connected to the New Chamber of Deputies through the entrance hall and
the gallery in the southern wing. In this way, the Castle, even more
clearly than before, was divided into two spheres: royal residential
(northern and eastern) and public - parliamentary and administrative
(southern and western).
18th century
After the election of
King August II, in 1697, the castle began to decline again - a new
conflict with King Charles XII of Sweden put a heavy burden on the royal
budget. Despite the problems, August II commissioned in 1698 a design
for the reconstruction of the residence, it was carried out in 1700 by
Johann Friedrich Karcher, imported from abroad. The castle was occupied
by the Swedes on May 25, 1702, turning it into a hospital with 500 beds,
and in the Chamber of Deputies and ministers' rooms - stables. In 1704
the castle was recaptured by the Polish army, but soon it again passed
into the hands of the Swedish army. In 1707, under the peace treaty
between August II and Charles XII, allied Russian troops entered Warsaw,
and Tsar Peter I the Great settled in the castle. After two months, the
Russian forces withdrew from Warsaw, looting works of art from the
Castle, incl. paintings by Tomasz Dolabella, including two paintings
important for Russians: Conquest of Smolensk and Paying tribute to
Sigismund III by the Szujski tsars.
In the years 1713–1715,
reconstruction began according to Karcher's design. In 1717, the Chamber
of Deputies was thoroughly rebuilt, which from then on was to serve the
Saxon rulers as a coronation hall. Then, between 1722 and 1723, other
castle rooms were rebuilt - under the direction of architect Joachim
Daniel Jauch, a new Senator's Hall was created, moving elements of the
old equipment to a new location, e.g. 60 coats of arms of Polish
voivodships, paneling, cornices and pilaster strips. On May 31, 1732, a
fire broke out in the castle, which destroyed the western façade and
part of the Sigismund Tower and external facade sculptures, called
Armatura.
Another project for the reconstruction of the royal
castle was created after the accession to the Polish throne of Augustus
III in 1733. New plans, created in 1734 and extended in 1737 by the
architect Gaetano Chiaveri, envisaged, inter alia, reconstruction of the
castle façade in the Rococo style from the side of the Vistula River,
intended to create a new so-called The Saska façade, as well as the
north-eastern part with a tower called the Gazebo, where it was planned
to add three two-story projections. Construction works according to
these designs were carried out with varying intensity in the years
1740–1752. In the period 1740–1747, the façade on the Vistula side was
rebuilt in the late Baroque style (architects Gaetano Chiaveri, Carl
Friedrich Pöppelmann, Jan Krzysztof Knöffel). One of the best sculptors
of that period, working on the castle, was Jan Jerzy Plersch, who made
royal cartouches, stuccoes and statues, the so-called Figures of Fame,
carrying royal crowns, placed on the top of the central avant-corps, the
so-called Saska Elevation from the side of the Vistula River. The last
works from this period were completed at the end of 1763, after the
death of August III, when Plersch made the last sculptures and
cartouches with provincial coats of arms for the Chamber of Deputies.
During the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last Polish
monarch, who ruled from 1764 until his abdication in 1795, the Royal
Castle experienced its greatest splendor. Amounts from the crown
treasury and private royal casket, patronage with which the king
surrounded artists and craftsmen, as well as the political views and
artistic taste of the ruler, made it possible to transform the "ancient
seat of Polish kings" into a representative royal residence, taking into
account the aesthetic and ideological concepts of the European
enlightenment.
During the reign of Stanisław August, eleven general reconstruction
projects were created: in the years 1764–1767, 1776–1779 and in 1788.
The earliest designs from 1764-1767, which were developed by Jakub
Fontana, French architect Victor Louis and Efraim Szreger, aimed at the
complete obliteration of the old shape of the Castle from the Vasa era
and at the urban connection of the building with the city by creating
parade courtyards from the side of Krakowskie Przedmieście, Piwna and
Świętojańska streets. . Later designs by Dominik Merlini (and one by E.
Szreger) from 1776–1779 were more conservative: they boiled down to
maintaining the former shape of the Castle, and the spatial arrangement
linking the building with the city took a form similar to the ancient
forum. In 1788 Merlini limited himself only to the proposal to demolish
the buildings covering the western façade and to regulate the square in
front of the royal seat.
Due to the financial difficulties of the
monarch and the political situation of the state, none of these projects
was implemented. As a result, only the reconstruction of the southern
wing of the Castle, damaged during the fire on March 12, 1767, was
completed (under the direction of Jakub Fontana, two damaged floors were
rebuilt and the courtyard elevation of the southern wing was erected
with a three-axis avant-corps and divisions in the form of Ionic
pilasters).
However, thorough changes were made to the interior
of the Castle. They included two representative apartments: the Grand
and the Royal. In the years 1768–1771, Jakub Fontana rebuilt the Marble
Room. The following year, under the direction of Merlini, work began in
the Royal Suite. Work began with the reconstruction of the sleeping
room, in the years 1774–1777 the Audience Room, the Prospect Hall (so
called because of the views of Bernard Bellotto) and the Chapel were
arranged. Apart from Merlini, Marcello Bacciarelli and Jan Bogumił
Plersch were active here, as well as the young architect from Dresden,
Jan Christian Kamsetzer, who was starting his artistic career at that
time. In 1777, in the former Saska Chapel, a gilded bronze altar with a
representation of the beheading of St. John the Baptist and the king's
coat of arms, a gift from Pope Clement XIV (now at the State Museum of
the History of Religion in St.Petersburg). In the years 1777–1781, the
Great Hall (Assamblowa) was rebuilt according to Merlini's design, and
in the period 1783–1786 work began in the Grand Suite, which included
the Marble Room, the Great Hall and the Perpetual Council Room. At that
time, a new Throne Room was created, preceding it, the Senator's Hall
known as the Knight's Hall (designed by D. Merlini and J. Ch.
Kamsetzer), and the Cabinet of European Monarchs located at the end of
the Grand Apartment.
The building of the Royal Library was built
from scratch (1780–1784), using the area adjacent to the east of the
Gothic wing of the Castle, and belonging to the Pod Blachą Palace
(purchased in 1776 by Stanisław August). The king entrusted the
preparation of the library design to Merlini, who gave it a rather
austere, classicist form.
Inside, the royal book collection,
which in 1795 had over 16,000 people, was collected. So talk.
Simultaneously with the construction of the Library, the northern wing
of the Pod Blachą Palace was added, creating a mezzanine, which had a
connection with the main library room. In the mezzanine there are
scientific and numismatic collections as well as laboratories and
apartments of the collection keepers.
The Royal Cabinet of
Engravings did not move to the Library, which was unprepared to accept
such an extensive collection. During the reign of Stanisław August, it
was located on the second floor of the Castle, in the southern wing,
above the king's living quarters. It was transferred to the library only
after the death of Stanisław August, when Prince Józef Poniatowski
inherited it. The number of the Cabinet of Engravings in 1817 was
estimated at 71,165 units, including over 24,000. loose engravings and
drawings, and over 45 thousand. figures and drawings included in 875
illustrated works and albums. In addition, there were 1674 objects from
the castle "Malarnia".
The northern wing of the Pod Blachą Palace
was also rebuilt, connecting it with passages with the main room of the
Library. There are offices, which are the workplace of scientists, incl.
Room of Medals and Antiquities.
Although the implementation of
ambitious projects for the reconstruction of the Castle and its
surroundings from the first years of the reign was unsuccessful, the
transformations of the castle interiors made by Stanisław August gave
them a high-class artistic form, so that they could boldly compete with
the most important centers of royal power in Europe, while maintaining
their specificity, expressed in the affirmation of the Polish republican
tradition.
In the Senatorial Room of the Royal Castle, during the session on May
3, 1791, the Grand Seym passed the Government Act, solemnly sworn in by
Stanisław August. Moments later, the participants of the Sejm session
went to the collegiate church of St. John, where they repeated the oath
and sang the hymn Te Deum.
In the building tariff introduced in
1797, the Castle was given the first number.
XIX century
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte stayed at the castle on 19–20 December 1806
and 1–30 January 1807. Here, in 1807, he decided to create the Duchy of
Warsaw, which was to be ruled by the Saxon ruler Frederick Augustus I,
residing at the Royal Castle. Further reconstruction projects, developed
by Polish architects: Adam Idźkowski and Jakub Kubicki, also come from
the nineteenth century. Idźkowski's design from 1843 assumed the
reconstruction of the Royal Castle with the use of decorative forms
borrowed from Gothic, Renaissance and Empire architecture. It assumed a
third floor superstructure with seven towers of different sizes, the
attics of which were to be decorated with eagles and ancient statues.
The metal roof helmets were to be removed from the Zygmuntowska and
Władysławowska towers and replaced with terraces surrounded by
balustrades. From the side of the Vistula, on the Saska Elevation,
Idźkowski planned to place antique-style reliefs (under the friezes of
three avant-corps), and below, on the facade of the third floor of
Corinthian pilasters. The façades of both the Royal Castle and the Pod
Blachą Palace were to be decorated with horizontal rusticated stripes
and iron balconies. This project, characterized by the breadth of the
architectural forms used, was a response to the emerging fashion of
using historical forms in architecture (unlike Kubicki's designs from 20
years ago, assuming a moderation of forms modeled on the past works of
royal architects implementing projects at the Royal Castle).
In
the years 1818–1821, on the eastern side of the Castle, Kubicki Arcades
were built, forming a wide terrace along the Saxon facade.
In the
evening of August 15, 1831, a revolted crowd lynched several people
imprisoned in the castle.
In 1836, after the division into
provinces in the Kingdom of Poland was abolished, provinces were
introduced in their place. Then the Royal Castle became the seat of the
tsar's governor Ivan Paskiewicz. In the years 1850–1852 Paskiewicz
commissioned a colonel in the Russian service and the architect Ludwik
Corio to design new facades and facades (western, southern and eastern
part). However, its development was not approved by the Russian
authorities, and Corio was forced to carry out another project,
referring to Kubicki's solutions (and the Lelewel and Thomas engineers
cooperating with him). In the end, Corio rebuilt all the façades in the
neoclassical style, and the Saxon façade was left unchanged. After
Paskiewicz's death in 1856, all successive governors resided at the
Royal Castle, in the Sub-Commander's Room, and Russian officials
occupied rooms on both floors of the west and north wings. The governors
were guarded by military units located in the Sejm Hall, the Library and
the barracks in the outer ward, which contributed to the devastation of
the building.
In 1839, the first signaling station of the optical
telegraph connecting Warsaw and St. Petersburg was installed in a
specially built-up tower in the south-eastern corner of the main
courtyard.
After the January Uprising in 1863, the Russian army
completely destroyed the royal garden on the side of the Vistula River
(turned into a drill square), building several brick barracks to be used
as stables and Cossack barracks. In the years 1862–1863, minor
maintenance works were carried out at the Royal Castle, under the
supervision of builders Jerzy Orłowicz, Ludwik Gosławski and Potołów. In
1890, the Saxon Elevation was rebuilt, under the supervision of the
builder January Kiślański, then the arcades of both viewing galleries,
dating back to the times of Augustus III, were deformed. The last
renovation works under Russian rule, the relatively high cost of which
amounted to 28,000 rubles, were carried out in 1902 in premises vacated
by the Russian army.
XX century
In the years 1915–1918,
General-Governor Hans Hartwig von Beseler resided at the Royal Castle.
The Act on November 5 was announced in his presence in the Column Hall
(it was read in Polish by Bogdan Hutten-Czapski).
In the years
1915-1939, restoration works were carried out at the Castle, which were
accelerated after the end of World War I and Poland regained
independence in 1918. The provisions of the Treaty of Riga of 1921
allowed for the restitution of some of the castle collections from the
territory of the USSR (previously transported to Russia by the tsarist
authorities) . In the 1920s, the architect and conservator Kazimierz
Skórewicz led the restoration and reconstruction of the Royal Castle. In
1928 he was replaced by another architect, Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz. In the
interwar period, many outstanding art restorers worked in the castle,
incl. Jan Rutkowski and Bohdan Marconi, which made the Royal Castle in
Warsaw one of the most important conservation centers in Poland at that
time.
In the years 1924–1925, the writer Stefan Żeromski lived in
a three-room apartment on the second floor of the Castle. From 1926, the
Royal Castle served as the residence of the President of the Republic of
Poland. 25 rooms on the first floor are open to the public.
During the defense of Warsaw in September 1939, the Royal Castle burned
down after German bombing. After the occupation of Warsaw by the German
army, the planned looting of works of art from the building began. On
October 10, 1939, specialized German teams led by historians and experts
(Dr. Dagobert Frey - art historian from the University of Wrocław,
Gustaw Barth - director of Wrocław museums, and Dr. Joseph Mühlmann -
art historian from Vienna) began to dismantle floors, marble, sculptures
and stone elements, e.g. fireplaces and cornices. Hundreds of Jews were
forced to work every day, and they carried out demolition works under
the supervision of German architects. These collections were taken to
Germany, warehouses in Krakow, or placed in the Warsaw headquarters of
Nazi dignitaries. The castle was completely stripped, the few pieces of
equipment were allowed to be kept by the Polish team from the National
Museum, describing the losses and secretly preparing photographic
documentation of the castle, working under the supervision of art
historian Stanisław Lorentz.
On October 4, 1939, Adolf Hitler
gave an order in Berlin to blow up the Royal Castle. From November 1939
to mid-January 1940, teams of German sappers drilled holes for dynamite
in the walls of all ground-floor rooms and in all pillars supporting the
vaults, but the final destruction of the building took place only during
the Warsaw Uprising, between September 8 and 13, 1944. Probable reason
for the withdrawal in 1940, from the demolition of the Castle, there was
a fear that the explosion would damage the nearby Kierbedź Bridge.
The decision to destroy the castle was related to the Nazi plans to
completely destroy Warsaw. The so-called Pabst plan provided for the
erection of the monumental People's Hall (German: Volkshalle) or the
Congress Hall of the NSDAP (German: Parteivolkshalle) in place of the
Royal Castle and the Monument of Germania instead of the Sigismund's
Column.
After the destruction in 1944, only the ground floor
(cellars), the lower part of the Grodzka Tower, the building of the
Royal Library and the Kubicki Arcade remained. In 1947, in order to
protect the area from taking over the area of the Castle under the W-Z
Route, the Grodzka Gate was rebuilt in the wall raised to the ground
floor level, using dismantled stone elements stored in the National
Museum during the war. At that time, the Żeromski Window was also
secured against destruction. On July 2, 1949, the Legislative Sejm
unanimously passed a resolution on the reconstruction of the Royal
Castle. However, it had no chance of being implemented due to financial
limitations and priorities set by the communist authorities. By order of
the Minister of Construction of June 7, 1950, a state enterprise was
established under the name of the Directorate for the Reconstruction of
the Warsaw Castle. In 1956, the "Zamek" Design Studio was established in
the structure of the State Enterprise "Pracownia conservacji Monuments"
(PP "PKZ"), whose task was to prepare designs for the reconstruction of
the building. Its work was managed by Jan Bogusławski. However, at the
beginning of 1961, the activity of the studio was suspended. In 1964,
the area surrounding the Castle was cleaned up. The outer walls were
built to a height of 1 meter, and benches were placed in the former
courtyard.
On January 19, 1971, at the request of Edward Gierek, the Political
Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party
decided to reconstruct the Castle. On January 20, during a meeting at
the Party House, Edward Gierek officially informed representatives of
the creative circles about it. On January 26 this year, the inaugural
meeting of the Civic Committee for the Reconstruction of the Royal
Castle in Warsaw was held at the Palace on the Island, chaired by the
head of the capital PZPR, Józef Kępa, and vice-chairman of the
distinguished museologist prof. Stanisław Lorentz. The construction
works were carried out by the chairman of the Architectural and
Conservation Committee, prof. Jan Zachwatowicz, they were performed at
PP "PKZ" according to the design of Jan Bogusławski with a team
(interiors: Mieczysław Samborski, Irena Oborska). The designers were
tasked with recreating the body of the building and the spatial
arrangement of its interiors in the outline and dimensions from 1939,
inserting all the preserved elements into their former places and
recreating, on the basis of iconographic records, those parts of the
Castle that were blurred as a result of reconstructions.
After
the completion of the security works, the reconstruction of the Castle
began with the Gothic wing, clearly visible from the W-Z route. In
February 1973, the construction of the gothic, southern and western wing
walls was completed and the roof structure was installed.
In
accordance with the postulate of Stanisław Lorentz, the works were
financed mainly from social contributions. It resulted from his belief
that the symbol of Polish sovereignty should be rebuilt by the Poles
themselves.
In April 1974, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, on
an official visit to Poland, offered the Castle the so-called Stockholm
roll. On July 19, 1974, the building was handed over in a shell.
The preserved authentic elements of the interior were used as patterns
to recreate the missing ones, and then they were also placed in the
reconstructed rooms. The clock on the Sigismund Tower, rebuilt in a
community effort, has a special history. The clock was built by a team
of members of the Warsaw's Guild of Goldsmiths, Watchmakers, Opticians,
Engravers and Bronzes. The movement consisted of 1700 pieces. On June 26
and 27, 1974, four clock faces were installed on the tower, on July 6,
clock bells and a clock mechanism were installed. He started his work as
the first working device in the Royal Castle on July 19 at 11:15 (at
this time the clock hands stopped on September 17, 1939).
In
1977, the first interiors were put into operation. In 1979, the Royal
Castle museum in Warsaw was established - Monument of National History
and Culture. In 1980, together with the Old Town, the rebuilt Royal
Castle in Warsaw was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
On August 31, 1984, the reconstruction of the building was completed and
the castle was handed over to the public. During the ceremony, attended
by representatives of the highest state authorities with Henryk
Jabłoński and Wojciech Jaruzelski, an urn with the heart of Tadeusz
Kościuszko was brought into the castle chapel. Interior fittings
(furniture, paintings, art collections, etc.) and finishing works lasted
until 1988. Additional financial support for the reconstruction was
provided by the Social Fund for the Reconstruction of the Capital.
XXI century
In the years 2004–2008, a comprehensive renovation of
the Pod Blachą Palace (which was incorporated into the castle complex in
1989) was carried out, and in the years 1996–2009 the Arkady Kubicki was
renovated (designed by Stanisław Fiszer), which connect the middle and
lower Castle Gardens. In 2009, the conservator of monuments decided to
restore the original color of the eastern Saxon elevation (ie the
elevation facing the Vistula River); restoration works were carried out
in the years 2012–2013.
Since 2008, the Warsaw bugle-call is
played every day at 11.15 from the Clock Tower of the castle to three
corners of the world.
The castle serves as a museum and reports
directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Since 2014,
the museum has been called the Royal Castle in Warsaw - Museum. The
residence of the Kings and the Republic of Poland.
Official
visits and state meetings are also held at the Royal Castle. Every year,
the Royal Castle in Warsaw is visited by 500,000 people. people.
In 2017–2019, the lower castle garden was reconstructed and opened to
visitors.
The museum is a member of the Association of European
Royal Residences.
Major historical events
At the Warsaw Sejm, on October 29, 1611,
in the old Senator's Hall of the castle, the Russian Tsar Vasyl IV
Szujski, captured by Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, paid tribute to the
Polish king Sigismund III Vasa.
On October 6, 1641, in the castle
courtyard, the Margrave of Brandenburg, Elector Frederick Wilhelm
Hohenzollern (Great Elector), paid tribute to Władysław IV Vasa.
In
the Senator's Hall on May 3, 1791, the Four-Year Seym passed the
Constitution.
The royal coronation of Tsar Nicholas I Romanov and his
wife took place in the Senator's Hall on May 24, 1829.
During the
November Uprising, on January 25, 1831, the Seym debating in the castle
dethroned King Nicholas I Romanov.
In the Great Hall on November 5,
1916, the so-called Act November 5.
In the Knight's Hall on April 23,
1935, the ceremony of signing the April Constitution took place.
In
the Great Hall on December 22, 1990, the President of the Republic of
Poland-in-exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, handed over the Insignia of the
President of the Republic of Poland to the first Polish president,
elected by free election after World War II, Lech Wałęsa.
In the
Great Hall on December 23, 2005, the Investiture ceremony of the
President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński for the Grand Master
of the Order of the White Eagle and the Order of Polonia Restituta took
place.
On August 6, 2010, the Investiture ceremony of the President
of the Republic of Poland Bronisław Komorowski for the Grand Master of
the Order of the White Eagle and the Order of Polonia Restituta took
place in the Great Hall.
On August 6, 2015, the Investiture ceremony
of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, for the Grand
Master of the Order of the White Eagle and the Order of Polonia
Restituta, was held in the Great Hall.
In the Great Hall on August 6,
2020, the re-investiture ceremony of the President of the Republic of
Poland, Andrzej Duda, took place as the Grand Master of the Order of the
White Eagle and the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Historical items
In the Small Chapel of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the royal insignia of
Stanisław August Poniatowski are kept: the Chain of the Order of the
White Eagle, the ceremonial sword of the Order of St. Stanisław and an
aquamarine scepter. There is also an urn with the heart of Tadeusz
Kościuszko in the chapel.
At the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the
insignia of the President of the Republic of Poland are kept: seal
stamps of the President of the Republic of Poland, the Banner of the
Republic of Poland and state documents, which Ryszard Kaczorowski handed
over to Lech Wałęsa on December 22, 1990.
In 1994, Countess
Karolina Lanckorońska donated 37 paintings to the Royal Castle. The
collection includes two paintings (portraits) by Rembrandt: The Scholar
at the Desktop and The Girl in the Picture Frame, both of which were
originally in the collection of Stanisław August Poniatowski.
In
December 2018, the violin made by Antonio Stradivari was deposited in
the Castle; it is the first such instrument in post-war Poland, it was
created in 1685 and was given the name "Polonia" - Janusz Wawrowski has
the privilege to play this violin.
Also in December 2018, a
painting by Marcello Bacciarelli, "Portrait of Jerzy Mniszech with his
daughter Elżbieta and Kiopek" from 1795, which was previously considered
lost, was brought to the Royal Castle.
Follow up
In the 1980s,
following the example of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the Gateway Theater
building - the seat of the Copernicus Foundation - was rebuilt in
Chicago's Jefferson Park district.
Commemoration
On November
7, 2014, the National Bank of Poland introduced into circulation a coin
from the series "Discover Poland" - Royal Castle in Warsaw with a face
value of 5 zlotys.
Directors of the Royal Castle
1979–1991 -
Aleksander Gieysztor
1991–2015 - Andrzej Rottermund
2016–2017 -
Przemysław Mrozowski (acting from 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2017)
from 2017 - Wojciech Fałkowski (from 20 November 2017)