The Museum of John Paul II Collection in Warsaw, also known as the Porczyński Gallery or Carroll-Porczyński Collection, is a museum dedicated to its painting collection, which is housed in the building of the former stock exchange and National Bank. It is considered one of the finest collections of European art in Warsaw. The collection includes around 400 exhibits mainly Old Masters and the Impressionists along with some copies of masterpieces of European painting.
The Royal Castle in Warsaw is a royal residence that formerly served throughout the centuries as the official home of Polish monarchs. It is situated in Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town. The personal offices of the king and the administrative offices of the royal court were located in the Castle from the 16th century until the final partition of Poland in 1795.
Initially, the fortified complex served as the residence of the Masovian dukes. In the early 1600s, it was designated to replace Wawel Castle in Kraków as the seat of the King, Parliament , and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The medieval Gothic structure was remodelled into Italian mannerism by architects Matteo Castelli and Giovanni Battista Trevano. The Baroque easternmost wing was designed by Gaetano Chiaveri and completed in 1747.
The Royal Castle witnessed many notable events in Poland's history; the Constitution of 3 May 1791, first of its type in Europe and the world's second-oldest codified national constitution, was drafted here by the Four-Year Parliament. Following Poland's loss of sovereignty, the castle was redesigned for the needs of the Imperial Russian and later German administration during the course of World War I. Under the Second Polish Republic , it was the seat of the Polish head of state and president.
The Second World War brought complete destruction to the building; in September 1939 it was targeted and ignited by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft, and then detonated by the Nazis after the failed Warsaw Uprising in 1944. In 1965, the surviving wall fragments, cellars, the adjacent Copper-Roof Palace and the Kubicki Arcades were registered as historical monuments. Reconstruction was carried out in the years 1971–1984. In 1980, the Royal Castle and the Old Town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, it serves as a museum annually visited by over 500,000 people, and one of Warsaw's most recognizable landmarks.
The Museum of King John III's Palace at Wilanów is a museum in Warsaw, Poland considered to be one of the oldest in the country and the repository of the country's royal and artistic heritage. The collection consists of valuables collected by subsequent owners of the Wilanów Palace, the Kings of Poland - John III Sobieski and Augustus II, as well as by representatives of noble families of Potocki, and Lubomirski and a collection of Sarmatian art.
Museum of the Polish Army is a museum in Warsaw documenting the military aspects of the history of Poland. Created in 1920, it occupies a wing of the building of the Polish National Museum as well as several branches in Poland. It's Warsaw's second largest museum and the largest collection of military objects in Poland. The collection illustrates a thousand years of Polish military history, from the 10th century to the Second World War.
