27 of the best sights in Warsaw

War­saw is the cap­i­tal of the Pol­ish Repub­lic and one of the most beau­ti­ful cities in East­ern Europe. There are many his­tor­i­cal sights, land­scaped parks and muse­ums.

Who travels to Warsaw and why

War­saw is an ancient city found­ed in the 13th cen­tu­ry. But dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, its cen­tral part was prac­ti­cal­ly destroyed. Many mon­u­ments were restored from scratch accord­ing to pho­tographs and draw­ings, while they were restored with per­fect accu­ra­cy. Every year mil­lions of tourists come here to admire the streets, squares, palaces, in which dif­fer­ent archi­tec­tur­al styles are mixed.

War­saw is a city of hap­py hol­i­days:

• In the fall, a beer fes­ti­val awaits guests. At the event, beer lovers are offered to taste 800 beers from dif­fer­ent coun­tries, try orig­i­nal snacks, and learn the secrets of brew­ing. Mas­ter class­es, exhi­bi­tions and fairs work in the city for three days.
• In August, War­saw invites you to a music fes­ti­val ded­i­cat­ed to Chopin. For a whole month, clas­si­cal music con­certs are held at dif­fer­ent venues. Pol­ish and for­eign musi­cians per­form on the stages, and peo­ple from dif­fer­ent parts of the world come to lis­ten to them.

Many peo­ple pre­fer to com­bine sight­see­ing with out­door activ­i­ties. In War­saw, tourists are offered yacht­ing on the Vis­tu­la, kayak­ing and kayak­ing, walk­ing in parks. Bik­ing and hik­ing tours of the area can be booked at local trav­el agen­cies.

War­saw is famous for enter­tain­ment. For a small fee, adults take a heli­copter flight, play paint­ball, shoot from a bow. Night­clubs open in the evenings. To dance and have fun, peo­ple go to the Tyg­mont jazz club, where theme par­ties and per­for­mances by pop­u­lar musi­cians are reg­u­lar­ly held.

For par­ents with chil­dren, the Pol­ish cap­i­tal guar­an­tees an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence. There are many enter­tain­ment cen­ters, cin­e­mas, muse­ums. The Łazien­ki Park, the Fun­park Dig­iloo with tram­po­lines and inflat­able slides, and the local zoo are ide­al for fam­i­lies.

Interesting places

Old city

The old­est his­tor­i­cal dis­trict, locat­ed in the cen­ter of War­saw, is the heart of the city. Many build­ings were destroyed dur­ing the war, but the Poles man­aged to com­plete­ly restore the lost mas­ter­pieces. Walk­ing along the streets paved with paving stones, you can see the Roy­al Palace, the town hall, the Cathe­dral of St. John the Bap­tist, the bar­bi­can.

Krakow suburb

The walk­ing avenue con­nect­ing the Old Town with the mod­ern dis­tricts of War­saw is called the Krakow Sub­urb. This is a wide road paved with Chi­nese gran­ite, along which the most beau­ti­ful church­es and palaces rise.

The most famous build­ings are the Uni­ver­si­ty of War­saw, the Pres­i­den­tial Palace, the Church of St. Anne. The Krakow Sub­urb is home to pres­ti­gious restau­rants and cafes serv­ing deli­cious pas­tries, Ital­ian piz­za and nation­al dish­es.

Palace Square

Between the Roy­al Palace and the Old Town there is a live­ly beau­ti­ful square. Its cen­tral fig­ure is con­sid­ered to be a col­umn with a stat­ue of King Sigis­mund III, installed back in 1644. Dur­ing the War­saw Upris­ing, the gran­ite mon­u­ment was top­pled.

It took about 5 years to restore the attrac­tion. Palace Square is used for cel­e­bra­tions and hol­i­days, and in win­ter they set up a Christ­mas nativ­i­ty scene and a Christ­mas tree.

Market Square

Until the end of the 13th cen­tu­ry, the Mar­ket Square played an impor­tant role in the life of the towns­peo­ple and was the polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al cen­ter of War­saw. Now it is a pop­u­lar tourist attrac­tion. Street musi­cians and artists work here, sou­venir shops, cafes, and shops are open.

On the Mar­ket Square there is a mon­u­ment to the War­saw Mer­maid. The proud war­rior is the sym­bol of the city. Her image with a sword and shield adorns the coat of arms of the cap­i­tal.

Architectural monuments

the Royal Castle

The archi­tec­tur­al com­plex was erect­ed at the end of the 16th cen­tu­ry at the direc­tion of Sigis­mund Vasa on the site of an ancient defen­sive cas­tle of the Mazov­ian dukes. It was repeat­ed­ly sub­ject­ed to fires and destruc­tion, but man­aged to main­tain its orig­i­nal appear­ance.

In the inner cham­bers there is a nation­al muse­um. Tourists are shown the throne room, the Cham­ber of Deputies, the mar­ble room, the meet­ing room, the roy­al library. Paint­ings by famous artists are exhib­it­ed in a sep­a­rate wing. The gems of the col­lec­tion are paint­ings by Rem­brandt, Mate­jko and Bel­lot­to.

Wilanów Palace

On the out­skirts of War­saw stands a baroque palace built in the 17th cen­tu­ry for the Pol­ish king. The white majes­tic build­ing often changed own­ers. In 1799, Kost­ka Potoc­ki became its own­er, an artist and col­lec­tor who found­ed one of the first Pol­ish muse­ums in the palace, which is still oper­at­ing.

Among its exhibits are antique fur­ni­ture, paint­ings, weapons, and sculp­tures. The Wilanów Palace is framed by a well-groomed park with bench­es, paths and foun­tains.

Presidential Palace

The pres­i­den­tial res­i­dence in the Krakow sub­urb is the largest cas­tle in the city. It was built in the mid­dle of the 16th cen­tu­ry for Het­man Stanislav Konet­spol­sky. In 1852, the main build­ing suf­fered from a fire and was rebuilt, acquir­ing fea­tures of the clas­si­cal style. The first floor is dec­o­rat­ed with a row of arch­es and a colon­nade of the Corinthi­an order. There are mar­ble stat­ues on the roof.

The inside of the Pres­i­den­tial Palace is allowed as part of an excur­sion. Guests have access to the cer­e­mo­ni­al halls, where offi­cial meet­ings and events take place. There you can see a mar­ble fire­place, rock crys­tal chan­de­liers, paint­ings by famous Pol­ish artists.

Ujazdowski castle

The res­i­dence of King August II was built in the mid­dle of the 17th cen­tu­ry on the site of an aban­doned ancient cas­tle. After the death of the own­er, the Baroque man­sion was aban­doned for a long time, and then a hos­pi­tal and mil­i­tary bar­racks were equipped in it.

Today the archi­tec­tur­al com­plex has been restored and is avail­able for tourists. Inside it oper­ates a cen­ter for con­tem­po­rary art. Peo­ple come here to admire paint­ings, engrav­ings, sculp­tures and take a walk in the beau­ti­ful manor park.

Monument to Nicolaus Copernicus

In front of the Stasz­ic Palace, in 1830, a mon­u­ment to Nico­laus Coper­ni­cus appeared, which quick­ly became one of the most famous in War­saw. The three-meter bronze stat­ue of the sci­en­tist was made with fil­i­gree pre­ci­sion by Bertel Thor­vald­sen. On a high pedestal, the inscrip­tion “To Nico­laus Coper­ni­cus from grate­ful com­pa­tri­ots” is engraved.

Dur­ing the war, the Ger­mans decid­ed to melt the sculp­ture into met­al, so they removed it from its pedestal and took it away. For­tu­nate­ly, they failed to accom­plish their plan, and the mon­u­ment was returned to the city after the vic­to­ry.

Kazimierz Palace

In the Krakow sub­urb there is a mag­nif­i­cent neo­clas­si­cal palace built in the 17th cen­tu­ry for Vladislav IV.

The build­ing has been expand­ed and rebuilt sev­er­al times. In 1816, the Uni­ver­si­ty of War­saw and a sec­ondary school, where the young Fred­er­ic Chopin was edu­cat­ed, start­ed work­ing in it. Today the Kaz­imirov Palace, destroyed dur­ing World War II, has been restored. It housed the uni­ver­si­ty admin­is­tra­tion and the his­tor­i­cal muse­um.

Palace of Culture and Science

The Palace of Cul­ture and Sci­ence made of import­ed stone and sand­stone has a height of 235 meters. It has 42 floors and more than three thou­sand rooms. At a height of 114 meters, an obser­va­tion deck is equipped, fenced with a steel grate. The sky­scraper, erect­ed in the style of Stal­in­ist real­ism, is clear­ly vis­i­ble from dif­fer­ent parts of the city.

Inter­nal rooms are used as offices, exhi­bi­tion cen­ters, muse­ums, con­fer­ence rooms, cin­e­mas, restau­rants. The con­cert hall of the palace is used for cel­e­bra­tions and per­for­mances by famous Pol­ish and for­eign musi­cians.

Warsaw Barbican

The semi­cir­cu­lar out­post is part of the 16th cen­tu­ry for­ti­fi­ca­tions that sur­round­ed and defend­ed War­saw. It is locat­ed between the New and Old Towns and is an impor­tant his­tor­i­cal land­mark. The fortress attracts atten­tion with pow­er­ful mason­ry, bat­tle­ments, round tow­ers, nar­row loop­holes.

Citadel

The con­struc­tion of for­ti­fi­ca­tions to pro­tect the Russ­ian ter­ri­to­ry began in 1832 by order of Emper­or Nicholas I. The com­plex sur­round­ing War­saw includ­ed the Alexan­dria citadel, forts Vladimir, Sliv­it­sky, Alex­ei, as well as church­es and out­build­ings.

To date, the for­ti­fi­ca­tions have been par­tial­ly destroyed. Only the Alexan­dri­an fortress, con­sist­ing of pow­der mag­a­zines, an arse­nal, Ivanovsky gates and defen­sive tow­ers, is well pre­served. On the tour you can see an exhi­bi­tion of ancient weapons, a mon­u­ment to Russ­ian sol­diers and a bas­tion.

Temples of Warsaw

Church of St. Anne

The grace­ful white church in the Krakow sub­urb, ded­i­cat­ed to St. Anne, was found­ed in 1454. It was dam­aged more than once dur­ing the wars, rebuilt and changed its appear­ance.

In the 18th cen­tu­ry, the façade was remod­eled in the Roco­co style, adding two tall bell tow­ers and adorn­ing it with stat­ues of saints. There are sev­er­al chapels inside the tem­ple. The vaults are dec­o­rat­ed with fres­coes, paint­ings, crys­tals. The main shrine of this church is the relics of St. Vladislav Gel­nevsky.

Church of St. Jacek

In the cen­ter of War­saw, the baroque church of St. Jacek flaunts, erect­ed at the begin­ning of the 17th cen­tu­ry at the direc­tion of the aris­to­crat­ic Kotovsky fam­i­ly. It kept rare church relics, a large col­lec­tion of old print­ed books, and for many years a board­ing school and an orphan­age for boys func­tioned in the back rooms.

Dur­ing the war, the tem­ple was destroyed dur­ing the bom­bard­ment and the valu­ables were lost. Now it has been restored and is open to believ­ers.

Church of the Holy Cross

The tem­ple of the Catholic Order of the Lazarists is locat­ed in the his­toric cen­ter of the city. It was erect­ed at the end of the 17th cen­tu­ry on the site of a wood­en chapel. The mag­nif­i­cent facade is dec­o­rat­ed with bell tow­ers with domes. There are mar­ble sculp­tures in the nich­es near the main entrance.

In front of the church, on a gran­ite pedestal, there is a bronze stat­ue of Jesus Christ with a cross. The cen­tral altar was designed by Tilman van Gameren and is called the “Altar of the Father­land”. Urns with the remains of F. Chopin and Vladislav Rey­mont are buried in the tem­ple.

Church of St. John the Baptist

In the Old Town there is the Cathe­dral of St. John the Bap­tist, found­ed in 1390. The build­ing in the brick Goth­ic style was intend­ed for the coro­na­tion and repose of the rulers and was the main tem­ple of War­saw. In 1618, the inte­ri­or was dec­o­rat­ed in the Baroque style, giv­ing it a spe­cial splen­dor.

The princes of Mazovia and many promi­nent res­i­dents of Poland are buried in the local crypt: Stanislav Poni­a­tows­ki, Stanislav Woj­ciechows­ki, Hein­rich Sienkiewicz.

Church of St. Casimir

The baroque church of St. Casimir in War­saw attracts atten­tion with a huge dome with a cross. The ped­i­ment of the facade is dec­o­rat­ed with orig­i­nal orna­ments.

Dur­ing the war, the tem­ple was used as a hos­pi­tal, but in August 1944, Ger­man troops sub­ject­ed it to a pow­er­ful bom­bard­ment. Civil­ians and priests hid­ing inside died. Engrav­ings of the 19th cen­tu­ry, the grave­stone of the Duchess of Bouil­lon and a mar­ble altar have been pre­served in the restored church.

Museums in Warsaw

Historical Museum

The His­to­ry Muse­um on the Mar­ket Square occu­pies sev­er­al large man­sions. Its funds con­tain more than 300 thou­sand items cov­er­ing events in the city from antiq­ui­ty to the present day. Tourists are shown finds from archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tions, a col­lec­tion of sil­ver­ware, ancient weapons, armor, maps and draw­ings of War­saw.

The main expo­si­tion is the exhi­bi­tion “Things of the city”. It presents paint­ings, antique fur­ni­ture, sculp­tures, awards donat­ed by the res­i­dents of the cap­i­tal.

Museum of the Polish Army

In the cen­ter of War­saw is the Muse­um of the Pol­ish Army, which tells about the valiant vic­to­ries of the nation­al army in dif­fer­ent his­tor­i­cal eras.

Vis­i­tors can see the uni­forms of sol­diers and offi­cers of the roy­al guard, mod­ern uni­forms, and weapons. Paint­ings depict­ing famous gen­er­als and bat­tle scenes are kept in a sep­a­rate room. A sig­nif­i­cant part of the muse­um is ded­i­cat­ed to the events of World War II and Poland’s con­tri­bu­tion to the fight against fas­cism.

F. Chopin Museum

In 1955, on the ini­tia­tive of artists, the Fred­er­ic Chopin Muse­um was opened in War­saw. The expo­si­tion in a white two-sto­ry man­sion stores items relat­ed to the life and work of the com­pos­er. The col­lec­tion con­tains per­son­al cor­re­spon­dence, pho­tographs, jew­el­ry, and paint­ings. Guests have access to news­pa­per pub­li­ca­tions about Chopin from dif­fer­ent years, a diary and work­ing sketch­es of the musi­cian.

National Museum

The Nation­al Muse­um of War­saw was cre­at­ed to pre­serve ancient and mod­ern works of art. It con­sists of 6 branch­es locat­ed in dif­fer­ent parts of the city.

The main build­ing is locat­ed on Jerusalem Avenue. The funds con­tain medieval paint­ings by Ital­ian, French, Ger­man artists, Pol­ish paint­ings, objects of ancient art and arti­facts reveal­ing the cul­ture of Cop­tic Chris­tians. The col­lec­tion of coins, man­u­scripts, icons is very pop­u­lar.

Warsaw Uprising Museum

The War­saw Upris­ing Muse­um is locat­ed in the old tram pow­er sta­tion. Its pur­pose is to pre­serve the mem­o­ry of trag­ic his­tor­i­cal events. The expo­si­tion tells about the life of peo­ple in the city dur­ing the Sec­ond World War and about the Resis­tance.

The exhi­bi­tion halls dis­play archival doc­u­ments, let­ters, pho­tographs, per­son­al diaries and rebel sto­ries. Not far from the muse­um there is a memo­r­i­al wall engraved with the names of those killed in the War­saw Upris­ing.

Copernicus Science Center

The sci­ence muse­um, built on the banks of the Vis­tu­la, will inter­est adults and chil­dren. There are inter­ac­tive exhibits for con­duct­ing inde­pen­dent exper­i­ments. Per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tions high­light the inter­ac­tion between man and the envi­ron­ment, the devel­op­ment of civ­i­liza­tion and sci­ence, and nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­na.

The muse­um reg­u­lar­ly hosts tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions pre­sent­ing impor­tant sci­en­tif­ic achieve­ments. There is a plan­e­tar­i­um on the ter­ri­to­ry, show­ing an excit­ing show on spher­i­cal screens.

parks

Lazienki

In the 17th cen­tu­ry, a large park designed by Tilman Gamer­s­ki appeared in the cen­ter of War­saw. It attracts atten­tion with smooth alleys, well-groomed lawns, clean lakes, open­work bridges. The cen­tral place in the ensem­ble is occu­pied by a palace on the water, erect­ed for the roy­al fam­i­ly.

The sum­mer res­i­dence ris­es on an island among spread­ing trees. The park has pre­served an old green­house with trop­i­cal plants, an ancient amphithe­ater, a white house with a pavil­ion and a water tow­er.

Zoo

The War­saw zoo, which opened at the begin­ning of the last cen­tu­ry, quick­ly grew and became one of the best in Europe. World War II nul­li­fied all the efforts of enthu­si­asts: many ani­mals died or were tak­en to Ger­many. After the vic­to­ry, the zoo was restored and its ter­ri­to­ry was sig­nif­i­cant­ly increased.

Today it is home to 3.5 thou­sand ani­mals from all over the world. Vis­i­tors get acquaint­ed with the inhab­i­tants of the African savan­nah and the Indi­an jun­gle, watch rare rep­tiles and birds. Play­grounds and cafes are equipped with­in the park.

Botanical Garden

In the cen­ter of the Pol­ish cap­i­tal there is a botan­i­cal gar­den belong­ing to the Uni­ver­si­ty of War­saw. It was plant­ed in 1811 for med­ical school stu­dents. Stu­dents here stud­ied the prop­er­ties of plants and used them to cre­ate med­i­cines.

The gar­den is cur­rent­ly open to the gen­er­al pub­lic. Tourists come to see the rose gar­den, flower beds and med­i­c­i­nal plants, green­hous­es with cac­ti. The park has beau­ti­ful paths and bench­es for rest. Those who wish can pur­chase seedlings and seeds in a small shop.