Royal Castle in Warsaw: A Historic Royal Residence

The history of the castle dates back to the 14th century when the first Castle Tower was constructed. The complex was initially used as the residence of the Masovian dukes.

In the early 1600s, the castle 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 remodeled into Italian Mannerism by architects Matteo Castelli and Giovanni Battista Trevano. The Baroque easternmost wing was designed by Gaetano Chiaveri and completed in 1747.

During the rule of Duke Conrad, the wooden-earthen 'gord' called 'Small Manor' was erected. The next duke, Casimir I, decided to build the Great Tower, possibly one of the first brick buildings in Warsaw.

The Curia Maior (Big Manor) was erected between 1407 and 1410 during the reign of Duke Janusz I the Elder. Its façade, still standing in 1944, was rebuilt after being knocked down by the Germans.

When the Duchy of Masovia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland in 1526, the edifice became one of the royal residences.

From 1548 onwards, Queen Bona Sforza resided in the castle with her daughters, who later became queens of Hungary, Sweden, and Poland.

In 1556–1557 and in 1564, King Sigismund II Augustus convened royal parliaments in Warsaw, which met in the castle.

Following the Lublin Union (1569), Warsaw Castle regularly became the place where the parliament of the Two-Nations State met.

The Curia Maior was altered to provide a meeting place for Parliament, with separate premises for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. This was one of the first European attempts to create a building solely for parliamentary use.

A new Renaissance style building, known as the 'Royal House', was erected next to the Curia Maior to house the King when parliament was in session.

The castle was enlarged between 1598 and 1619 under Sigismund III Vasa, who transferred the royal residence from Kraków to Warsaw. Giovanni Trevano was in charge of the reconstruction.

Between 1601 and 1603, Giacomo Rodondo finished the new northern wing. Later, after 1614, Matteo Castelli led the construction of the western wing, which housed chanceries and a marshal's office.

In 1619, the New Royal Tower, also called Sigismund's Tower, was finished. It was 60 meters high and placed in the middle of the newly built west castle.

On 29 October 1611, in the Senator's Chamber, Tsar Vasili IV of Russia, who had been captured by hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, paid homage to the Polish king Sigismund III Vasa.

Sigismund III Vasa and his successors collected many rich works of art, including paintings by Titian, Veronese, Rembrandt, and sculptures by Giambologna.

In 1628, the first Polish opera, 'Galatea', was staged at the Castle. The great opera hall was later demolished by Swedes and Germans.

Following the Deluge (1655-1657) and subsequent destruction by Swedish and Russian armies, reconstruction of the castle started in 1657 under Izydor Affait's guidance.

The Władysław IV's Opera Hall was completely devastated but was rebuilt in the 1660s by King John II Casimir.

Due to lack of funds, King Michael I Korybut limited rebuilding efforts to destroyed buildings after the 1657 reconstruction, leading him to move to Ujazdów Castle.

Augustus II commissioned a residence reconstruction project in 1698, executed by Johann Friedrich Karcher. Despite wartime seizures and damage, reconstruction based on Karcher's plans occurred between 1713 and 1715.

The Parliament Hall was completely rebuilt between 1713 and 1717 to serve the Saxon rulers as a coronation hall.

Between 1722 and 1723, the new Senate Chamber was built under architect Joachim Daniel von Jauch, with furnishings moved from the old location.

New plans by Gaetano Chiaveri in 1734 and developed in 1737, led to reconstruction of the façade on the Vistula side in the rococo style between 1740 and 1752.

Jan Jerzy Plersch, a sculptor, worked on the castle during the 1740s-1750s, creating royal decorative frames, mouldings, and statues for the Saxon elevation.

The castle experienced its most splendid period during the rule of Stanisław II Augustus (1764–1795), who collected art and recruited leading architects and painters.

Between 1766 and 1785, the southern wing was rebuilt according to Jakub Fontana's plans, featuring a new elevation with three avant-corps.

Between 1774 and 1777, the monarch's private apartments were furnished, including the Prospect Room, chapel, Audience Chamber, and Bedchamber.

Between 1779 and 1786, the Senate Apartments were completed, comprising the Ballroom, Knights Hall, Throne Room, Marble Room, and Conference Chamber.

The castle housed rich royal collections including 3200 pictures, statues, graphics, medals, coins, and a library, for which a separate building was erected in 1780–1784.

The castle was a center for the ideas of the Polish Enlightenment, hosting 'Thursday lunches' for intellectuals and serving as the birthplace for ideas like the National Education Commission and the national theatre.

In the Senate Chamber on May 3, 1791, the Great Sejm (Four-Year Parliament) passed the famous Polish Constitution of 3 May, Europe's first modern codified national constitution.

Between December 1806 and January 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte stayed at the castle and decided to form the Duchy of Warsaw, to be ruled by Frederick August I from the castle.

During the November Uprising, on 25 January 1831, the Sejm, debating in the castle, dethroned Tsar Nicholas I as Polish king.

Following the January Uprising, Ludvik Corio redesigned the west, south, and east elevations and façades in the neoclassical style, though the Saxon Elevation remained unchanged.

Maintenance work was conducted between 1862–1863 under Jerzy Orłowicz and others. Further repair works costing 28,000 rubles were done in 1902.

During the First World War, the castle served as the residence of the German military governor.

After Poland regained independence in 1918, the castle became the residence of the president of Poland.

The castle was restored under the guidance of Kazimierz Skórewicz (1920–1928) and Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz (until 1939).

Under the terms of the peace treaty with Soviet Russia in Riga (1920), artworks and furnishings taken to Russia were returned to Poland, allowing for the restoration of historic rooms.

On 17 September 1939, the castle was shelled by German artillery, destroying the roof and turrets. The ceiling of the Ballroom collapsed, destroying a fresco.

After the German occupation of Warsaw, valuable objects, including central heating installations, were dismantled and taken to Germany. Many were seized by Nazi dignitaries.

In 1944, after the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans blew up the castle's demolished walls, leveling the edifice as part of the Pabst Plan.

Immediately after the end of the war in 1945, work began to rescue the surviving fragments of the castle's walls, foundations, and cellars from further destruction.

In 1949, the Polish Parliament passed a bill to rebuild the castle as a monument to Polish history and culture.

The decision to start the reconstruction was finally taken on January 20, 1971, with a Civic Committee set up to fund the work through voluntary contributions.

Reconstruction was carried out in the years 1971–1984, during which it regained its original 17th-century appearance.

In 1965, surviving wall fragments, cellars, the adjacent Copper-Roof Palace, and the Kubicki Arcades were registered as historical monuments.

In 1980, the Royal Castle and surrounding Old Town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In 1994, Countess Karolina Lanckorońska donated 37 pictures to the Royal Castle, including two paintings by Rembrandt: 'The Father of the Jewish Bride' and 'The Girl in a Picture Frame'.

In December 2018, the castle acquired a violin created by Antonio Stradivari in 1685, officially named 'Polonia' to commemorate Poland's independence centenary.

In December 2018, a painting by Marcello Bacciarelli titled 'Portrait of Jerzy Mniszech with Daughter Elizabeth and Kiopek' (1795), considered missing, was returned to the castle's collections.

The Copper-Roof Palace was originally built as a patrician house by Wawrzyniec Reffus between 1651 and 1656.

After 1657 destruction, the Copper-Roof Palace was completely remodeled in 1698–1701 for Jerzy Dominik Lubomirski, who expanded it by building a southern wing.

In 1720, the Copper-Roof Palace was rebuilt with the addition of a second northern wing and its interior was decorated with rococo paintings.

After 1777, the palace passed to King Stanisław II Augustus, who hired architect Domenico Merlini to redesign the interior rooms and join the library wing of the Royal Castle to it.

The Copper-Roof Palace was burned in 1944 and reconstructed between 1948 and 1949, based on paintings by Bernardo Bellotto.

On 24 May 1829, Nicholas I of Russia was crowned King of Poland in the Royal Castle's Senator's Hall.

On 5 November 1916, the Act of 5 November was announced in the Grand Hall of the Royal Castle.

On 23 April 1935, the April Constitution was signed in the 'Knight Hall' of the Royal Castle.

The insignia of presidential power, including the stamp of the President and national documents transferred by Ryszard Kaczorowski to Lech Wałęsa, are stored in the Castle.

The Royal Castle in Warsaw is an official member of the Association of the Royal Residences of Europe.

In 2014, the National Bank of Poland issued a 5 zloty coin depicting the Royal Castle in Warsaw as part of the 'Discover Poland' series.