Royal castle of Warsaw

Poland hasn’t been a monarchy since 1795 when the country was divided for the third time between the major power in the eastern part of Europe back then – Austria, Russia and Prussia. But despite the lack of a royal family the royal castle still dominates the entrance to the old town of Warsaw. Since the castle is no longer used as a royal residence it has been transformed into a museum which is a nice spot to visit when you are going to the old town of Warsaw.

Through its long history the castle has repeatedly been rebuilt and severally damaged during wars. The latest destruction came during World War II when the Germans burned the castle during the occupation of Poland in 1939 and later during the Warsaw uprising in 1944 the castle was almost completely destroyed. Hence the current castle is a reconstruction of the older castle. It was rebuilt between 1971 and 1984 and has together with the reconstructed old town it has been listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

We went to the castle during our stopover in Warsaw – and fortunately we went on a Wednesday when the entrance to the castle is free so we saved the normal entrance fee of 30 Zloty each or about 7€. Despite the fact it was the free day to visit the castle it wasn’t too crowded so it was a good day to go and visit the castle.

We go inside the castle and go through the many rooms which consist of the old royal apartments. Some of the rooms are furnished – but a lot of them are pretty bare – I guess the war and destruction of the castle has destroyed most of the original furniture’s. Fortunately the rooms are very pretty even without furniture so it is nice to wonder through the many rooms.