Fodor's Expert Review Pałac Łazienkowski

This magnificent palace—often called "Pałac na wyspie," which means "Palace on the Island"—is the focal point of the Park Łazienkowski. Initially a baroque garden pavillion, it was bought for the king's summer residence in 1764 and remodelled into a neoclassical palace modelled on the likes of Villa Borghese in Rome. The palace has some splendid 18th-century furniture as well as part of the art collection of King Słanisław August Poniatowski. The king not only admired the works of art for their aesthetic value, but he had an ambition to "shape the spiritual culture of the nation" and planned to create the first modern, public museum of art.