Polish History Museum

The Polish History Museum is located in the Warsaw Citadel – a 19th-century fortress built on the orders of Tsar Nicholas I in order to exercise control over the city.
You can currently see temporary exhibitions here devoted to fascinating aspects of Polish history. Later exhibitions will cover the armed uprisings of Poles, early Polish rulers, and the 1990s. What next? You’ll find out in the future.
Plan your 2026 visit now. That is when the opening is to be held of a permanent exhibition consisting of over 3,000 diverse exhibits. A remarkable journey through 10 centuries of history will set off from a black oak. This witness of the dawn of the Polish state survived for over 1,000 years in a Pomeranian pond. The things you will discover as you go trough the exhibition’s galleries include the multinational and multi-religious phenomenon that was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. From these times comes an imposing fragment of Villa Regia, the royal residence of Władysław IV Vasa. It was reconstructed from parts of the palace looted by the Swedes during the so-called Flood, and then sunk in the Vistula River. You will also see how everyday life looked in past eras, as well as how Poles fought for many years for their country’s freedom and independence. Among the exhibits from the period of domination by the Soviet Union will be an armored SKOT transporter – like the one that stood on Polish streets in the first weeks of martial law and appeared in the famous photo ‘Time of the Apocalypse’ by Chris Niedenthal, as well as fragments of a monument to Feliks Dzierżyński, the creator of the Bolshevik terror apparatus, that once stood on today’s Plac Bankowy.
Pay attention to the facade of the monumental building. Its layers of patterned marble are intended to encourage us to see history as a sequence of successive epochs. Stone elements also dominate the interior, and the building has been recognised as one of the most beautiful museums in the world by the international Prix Versailles competition.
The museum offers more than just exhibitions. The Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, featuring the most talented graduates of Polish music schools, regularly performs in the concert hall, and film screenings and performances are held in the cinema and theatre hall. During opening hours, you can also visit the observation deck on the roof and admire Warsaw’s beautiful panorama.