Palace in Lazenki
Warsaw, Agricoli St., 1 (ul. Agrykoli 1)
Description:
In one of the most picturesque places of Warsaw – Royal Lazienki – is the pearl of Polish architecture – the Palace on the island.
Its history is closely connected with the reign of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last king of Poland. It was Stanislav August who decided to expand the small pavilion of the Bath of Lyubomirsky and create one of his residences in this place. It becomes the place of exposition of the royal collection of paintings of the XVII-XVIII centuries and sculpture.
The mythological scenes depicted in the ballroom of the palace are very interesting: with their help, the king showed how important such spiritual qualities as wisdom, nobility, beauty, love of art are for him.
During World War II, the Germans burned down the palace: the fire destroyed all its precious decoration. The building was going to blow up, but did not have time. After the war, the place where the palace once stood was empty until 1971. Then the Sejm decided to restore the palace from the surviving fragments and photographs. Restoration work continued until 1988.