The Best Warsaw Museums
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Visiting Warsaw Poland
Part of what makes visiting Warsaw, Poland so special is the unique glimpse it gives you into history, particularly during the Second World War. If you’re interested in the history of World War II, Warsaw Museums will not disappoint. Of course, the Warsaw museum scene isn’t just about WWII or the history of Polish Jews, there are museums dedicated to fine arts, science, and other important topics. But this is to say there are many great museums in Warsaw and you should make time to check them out during your stay in the city.
The 10 Best Museums In Warsaw
I’ve compiled my top picks for the best museums in Warsaw below. I’ve included a variety of the best museums the city has to offer, as well as information on their hours, free days, and accessibility. Like many cities in Europe, it’s best to reserve your museum tickets ahead of time when possible as they do sell out, particularly in the busy summer months.
Lazienki Palace
Lazienki Palace
It’s a palace. It’s a museum. It’s a palace AND a museum. Lazienki Palace Museum features paintings, sculptures, prints, coins, and medals amassed by Stanislaw August during his nearly thirty-year reign. These works were made by Polish and other European artists. It was one of the king’s goals to open the Royal Lazienki as the first modern museum open to the public.
Stanisław August did not consider the fine arts solely as an aesthetic decoration for his residence. Oh no, no, no. His collection represented much, much more. The paintings, sculptures, prints, architecture, and other works were all part of a greater iconographical program that embraced political, social, and economic matters and was intended to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and help raise national consciousness in the late 1700s. The fine arts were supposed to “shape the nation’s spiritual culture” and thus contribute to its renewal.
During his reign, Stanislaw August transformed the Palace on the Isle into a museum villa to display the best of his collection, which – according to the inventory from 1795 – contained 2,289 works by the most impressive artists and represented the leading European currents of the 17th and 18th century. Works by Dutch artists were the most numerous paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn.
Inside Lazienki Palace Museum
After World War II broke out, paintings from the Royal Łazienki were moved to the storage rooms of the National Museum in Warsaw. A large part of the collection was taken by the German occupiers in 1940. However, the vast majority of paintings were recovered in 1945 and 1946 and found their way to the National Museum in Warsaw. The Palace on the Isle, which burned down during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, was not rebuilt until the 1960s. Today the national collection has been divided into two sub-collections, which are displayed in two museums: The National Museum in Warsaw and the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw.
The Museum Gardens are open Monday thru Sunday from 6 am to 10 pm. Admission to the gardens is free.
Th Palace Museum itself is open as follows:
Tuesday-Wednesday: 10 am - 4:00 pm
Thursday to Friday: 10 am - 6 pm
Saturday: 12 pm - 8 pm
Sunday: 10 am - 4 pm
Admission to the museum is free on Fridays. Sorry, no advance reservations.
Accessibility:
In the interiors of the 18th-century villa, visitors can now use audio descriptions and audio guides, and typhlographics of paintings, sculptures, furniture, wallpapers, vases, clocks, prints from the Royal Collection of Prints of Stanisław August, and views of the facade of the White Pavilion. For the hearing-impaired, induction loops and videos translated into Polish Sign Language are present.
The Museum also strives to ensure access to the interior of the buildings for persons with mobility impairments. For that reason, the rooms were specially adapted, among other things through the removal of thresholds and level differences and adjustment of the furniture arrangement, as well as the purchase of an elevator for wheelchairs for wheelchair users.
ADDRESS: Agrykola 1, 00-460 Warsaw, Poland
Copernicus Science Centre
2. Copernicus Science Center
This is an expansive science center that’s great for kids. It contains over 450 interactive exhibits that enable visitors to carry out experiments and discover the laws of science for themselves. In fact, I’m cheating a bit by including Copernicus on my list of museums as the Science Center proudly boasts that it’s not a museum in the traditional sense. There are no glass cabinets or guides to show you around. Rather, it’s a “space that will inspire you to observe, experiment, ask questions, and look for answers.” The center proclaims, “It’s up to you what you take home.”
Accessibility:
The building is equipped with elevators, platforms, and accessible bathrooms for people with disabilities.
In front of the building, you can find ramps allowing easy access to the Centre.
The height of cash desk no. 5 is adjusted to serve people in wheelchairs.
Inside the Planetarium, there are special spots for people in wheelchairs.
For visitors with visual impairments:
In the entrance zone of Copernicus Science Centre, there are special markers on the floor (directional and blister tactiles).
Next to the cash desk aisle, there is a tactile map of the whole building.
In the Planetarium, you can enjoy three films with audio descriptions: Earth, Moon, Sun, Black Holes, and Dream to Fly. Headphones are available at the cash desks after issuing a 300 PLN deposit or showing an ID.
Elevator buttons are marked in Braille.
For visitors with hearing impairments:
Cashiers have a sign language system to communicate with the hearing impaired.
For visitors on the autism spectrum:
It can be very loud sometimes in the exhibition area, so it is recommended that visitors with sensory issues bring noise-canceling headphones.
There are stroboscopic exhibits on the 1st floor.
Outside of the exhibition area, there is a quiet room. It isolates you from the noise and the presence of other people. If you need it, just ask the staff how to find it.
ADDRESS: Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie 20, 00-390 Warsaw, Poland
Europe’s one of a kind Museum of Neon
3. Neon Museum
Mentioned by The Guardian as one of the best museums in Europe. The Neon Museum in Warsaw is so much more than just an exhibition of old, dusty signage like some of the neon museums in the United States. This museum is dedicated to the preservation and documentation of Cold War-era Neon Signs and Electro-Graphic Design. The neon museum is the first and only one of its kind in Europe. It’s filled with hundreds of brightly colored signs and infographics.
Many of these signs were designed by the great graphic artists of the time, including the designers responsible for the world-renowned Polish Poster School. When you visit the Neon Museum you will be blown away by the sheer creativity born from revolution, utilized as state propaganda, and omnipresent throughout Poland and the Eastern Bloc's post-WWII urban landscape.
The museum is wheelchair accessible.
Hours:
Monday: 12 pm - 6 pm
Tuesday: CLOSED
Wednesday-Saturday: 12 pm - 6 pm
Sun: 11 am - 5 pm
ADDRESS: Soho Factory 25 Minska Street Warsaw Poland
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
4. POLIN Museum of The History of Polish Jews
One of the most important museums in Poland, The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is located in the heart of pre-war Jewish Warsaw, in a district that was turned into a ghetto by the Germans during the war. The modern building stands opposite the Monument to the Ghetto Heros. While the monument pays tribute to the struggle and martyrdom of Polish Jews, the museum recreates their history and shows that the holocaust is not the final chapter of Jewish life and culture within Poland.
The POLIN Museum takes visitors through the thousand-year history of the Jewish people in Poland. The exhibits in the museum foster further discussion about the challenges in the present day. The museum’s curators believe the museum can stimulate empathy and respect for people of different faiths and cultures. Something that is especially important today as we see the return of anti-Semitism within Poland and elsewhere, increased xenophobia, radical nationalism, and hate speech. The POLIN Museum is as important today as ever.
On Monday Wednesday, Thursday Friday and Saturday the museum is open from 10 am to 6 pm. Saturday it it open from 10 am to 8 pm. Thee museum is CLOSED on Tuesdays. On Thursday the museum is FREE.
Accessibility:
For guests with mobility impairments -
The POLIN Museum is wheelchair-accessible. Wheelchairs for adults are available at the ticket desk and by the security stand at the main entrance.
There are no steps getting to the Museum via entrances on Zamenhoffa and Anielewicza Streets.
For guests with visual impairments -
Service dogs are welcome at the Museum.
Audio description of the core exhibition is recorded on audio guides available at the Museum ticket desk. The exhibition tour with an audio description lasts 150 minutes.
Tactile graphics of selected objects from the core exhibition along with their descriptions are available at the Resource Center, next to the Museum store.
The Museum building architectural model with inscriptions in the Braille alphabet is displayed at level -2 of the core exhibition. Staff will help you get acquainted with the model.
For guests with hearing impairments -
Neck induction loops to be used during guided tours are available at the ticket desk.
ADDRESS: Mordechaja Anielewicza 6, 00-157 Warsaw, Poland
Zacheta national Gallery of Art
5. Zacheta National Gallery of Art
The Zacheta Gallery is an impressive contemporary art gallery with over 3,600 objects of art in its permanent collection. About 700 are paintings, almost 80 are video works and around 100 are sculptures and installations. The gallery also owns an extensive collection of over 2600 works on paper such as drawings and photographs. Polish artists from the 20th century, like Tadeusz Kantor, Henryk Stażewski, and Alina Szapocznikow, are represented within the collection as well as Polish contemporary artists such as Mirosław Bałka, Katarzyna Kozyra, Zbigniew Libera, Wilhelm Sasnal and Krzysztof Wodiczko. If you’re not familiar with Polish artists, this is an excellent opportunity to get familiar.
National Museum Warsaw Tickets and Hours:
Tuesday – Sunday 12 pm – 8 pm Thursday is free entry (no free entrance ticket needed)
Tickets are $5 USD for adults.
Accessibility:
Visitors with motor disabilities should enter through the southeast entrance to the gallery, located at the left corner of the building. An elevator situated to the left of the entrance allows easy access from the pavement level to the basement (-1 level), where a cloakroom, lockers, and a disabled toilet are located. From here, visitors are able to gain access, either by an elevator or stairs, to the other floors where the exhibition halls are situated.
For visually impaired guests an audio guide is available, however, it is only available in Polish.
The museum holds workshops and guided tours in Polish sign language for the hearing impaired.
ADDRESS: Plac Stanisława Małachowskiego 3, 00-916 Warsaw, Poland
The Warsaw Uprising Memorial
6. Warsaw Uprising Museum
The Warsaw Rising Museum was the one museum that every single friend who had been to Warsaw recommended I visit. The Museum is a tribute to Warsaw’s residents who fought and died for an independent Poland and its free capital. The museum presents 800 exhibition items, approximately 1500 photographs, and numerous films, and sound recordings. Audio guides are available in 27 languages.
The Museum is accessible to people in wheelchairs. There is an elevator on each level of the exhibition. A wheelchair can also be rented from the Museum's cloakroom. Admission for carers of disabled visitors is free.
A modern audioguide system enables blind people to visit almost the entire exhibition. Guided tours for blind visitors can be booked by phone at (+48 22) 539 79 33 or (+48 22) 539 79 47.
The Museum also offers guided tours assisted by a sign language interpreter. Tours are available, on-demand, on Fridays during the Museum's opening hours. Visitors can book by email at ekspozycja@1944.pl.
OPENING HOURS:
Monday – 8 am - 6 pm
Tuesday – CLOSED
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – 8 am- 6 pm
Saturday and Sunday – 10 am - 6 pm
Admission to the museum is free on Mondays. I highly recommend getting tickets in advance.
ADDRESS: Grzybowska 79 Warsaw 00-844 Poland
The Palace of Science and Culture
7. & 8. The Warsaw Museum of Science and Culture
The Warsaw Palace of Science and Culture, besides being widely considered an eyesore by most of the city, contains two museums (Museum of Evolution and Museum of Technology). Although Stalin’s gift to the city may be unsightly, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
The first of the two museums. The Museum of Evolution features a wide array of fossils and dinosaur skeletons. The dinosaur skeletons were discovered during Polish-Mongolian expeditions to the Gobi Desert in the 1960s and 1970s. Guests will be blown away by the gigantic skeletal replica of the enormous plant-eating sauropod dinosaur Opisthocoelicaudia which fills practically the whole main exhibition hall.
Sadly, The Museum of Evolution is not adapted for people with disabilities. However, guide dogs are welcome.
The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 am to 4 pm and Sunday from 9 am to 3 pm.
The second museum, The Museum of Technology presents a collection that includes over 15,000 exhibits from many fields, including astronomy and physics, mining and metallurgy, information technology, radio engineering, transport, and energy. It highlights the contribution of Poles to the world's technical and scientific heritage.
Exhibits include motorbikes, airplanes, 19th-century musical boxes, and historic cars.
The Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm. (The last entry for visitors is at 5:15 PM.)
Accessibility:
The museum is equipped with portable ramps for wheelchairs, an external elevator that bypasses the entrance stairs, and an internal administrative elevator that can accommodate up to four wheelchairs at a time.
The museum has specially adapted toilets for people with a wide range of mobility issues.
The museum has floor nodular markings and a typographic plan of the exhibition.
The complete set of information is available visually and bilingually.
Multimedia content is available in a variant for people with visual impairments.
ADDRESS: Plac Defilad 1, 00-901 Warsaw, Poland
Wilanow Palace
9. Wilanów Palace
Unlike most of Warsaw, Wilanów Palace was largely spared during the intense bombings of World War II. Built between 1677–1696 for the then-King of Poland, John iii Sobieski, the palace is often called the Versailles of Poland, Wilanów Palace is a grand structure filled with tapestries, paintings, furniture, sculptures, ceramics, and other objects of art. It also features one of the most impressive gardens I’ve had the pleasure of visiting.
Wilanów Palace is open:
Every day from 10 am to 4 pm (last admission: 3 pm)
Accessibility:
Unfortunately, due to it being an old, historic building some of the inside is not wheelchair accessible. Guests using wheelchairs and those unable to climb stairs will not be able to see everything. However, the gardens are wheelchair-accessible and feature wheelchair-accessible restrooms.
ADDRESS: Stanisława Kostki Potockiego 10/16, 02-958 Warsaw, Poland
The Royal Castle in Warsaw
10. The Royal Castle Warsaw
The Royal Castle is a state museum and a national historical monument, which formerly served as the official royal residence of several Polish monarchs. It’s conveniently located at the start of Old Town in Castle Square.
The Royal Castle is a state museum and a national historical monument, which formerly served as the official royal residence of several Polish monarchs. Visitors can go inside and look at the royal apartments and the Throne Room. Also impressive are the paintings by Rembrandt and Canaletto, Guests can also see Senator’s Hall, in which the May 3rd Constitution was passed – the first constitution in Europe and the second in the world.
Outside the castle are the beautifully reconstructed upper and lower gardens. The gardens were carefully recreated in the style of the 1920s and 1930s, and not only complement the residence but are also an ideal place to relax. The huge lawn, flower beds, fountains, and mazes created from several-meter-high hedges make for ideal photographs. If you have more time, stay a bit longer to see the charm of the garden in the glow of the illuminations after dark.
Royal Route, Gallery of Masterpieces, Arkady Kubicki:
Tuesday–Sunday: 10 am - 6 pm (last entrance at 5 pm)
Monday: closed
Rooftop Palace
Wednesday, Saturday–Sunday: 10 am - 6 pm (last entrance at 5 pm)
Royal Gardens:
Upper Garden - daily: 10 am - 8 pm
Lower Garden - daily: 10 am - 10 pm
ACCESSIBILITY:
The Royal Castle has ramps by the ticket desks, reduced tickets, and the possibility of renting a wheelchair for those with mobility impairments. For the hearing impaired, guided tours can be ordered in sign language. Visually impaired guests can explore the Royal Palace with the help of a special map and recordings of descriptions of the exhibits in the Throne Hall and The Marble Room.
ADDRESS: Plac Zamkowy 4, 00-277 Warsaw, Poland
Enjoy Your Visit to These Top Warsaw Museums
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my picks for the 10 best museums in Warsaw, Poland. I highly recommend checking them out in person. If you’ve had a chance to visit, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
