Royal Castle in Warsaw

The Royal Castle stands at the entrance to the Old Town of Warsaw, its brick facade and clock tower closing the east side of Castle Square. For three centuries it was the residence of Polish kings and the seat of the Sejm, the parliament of the Commonwealth, and it was here in seventeen ninety one that Europe's first written constitution was passed. In nineteen forty four the German army blew the castle up after the Warsaw Uprising, leaving a heap of rubble. What you see today was rebuilt between nineteen seventy one and nineteen eighty four, largely with donations from Poles at home and abroad, and furnished with original fragments, rescued works of art and the returned royal collections.

The visit follows the state apartments of the last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, an eighteenth-century patron of great taste. The Great Apartment holds the ballroom, the Marble Room, the Knights' Hall and the Throne Room; the King's Apartment holds his private rooms and the Canaletto Room with the famous views of Warsaw by Bernardo Bellotto. The Parliament rooms, including the Senators' Chamber of the Constitution, occupy the older wing, and the ground floor galleries display the Lanckoroński collection with its two paintings by Rembrandt.

A first-time visitor should allow two hours, take the audio guide, and remember that almost every ceiling, floor and panel is a reconstruction; that is the castle's story, not a flaw. The gardens on the Vistula side are free and offer a fine view of the rebuilt east facade.