52 Best Sights in Warsaw, Poland

If you're interested in all things military, you might want to visit this museum's exhibits of weaponry, armor, and uniforms, which trace Polish military history for the past 10 centuries. Heavy armaments are displayed outside. In a few years, the museum will move to the new building, now under construction—but until then, it remains open in the old location.

In the old coach houses on the east side of the park you'll find the Muzeum Łowiectwa i Jeździectwa, which contains a collection of stuffed birds and animals native to Poland.

At the entrance to this formal garden, there is a 19th-century weighing booth, just inside the gate, still in operation. There is also a well-equipped playground for small children, with sand, swings, and slides.

Built in the early 18th century, the palace was reconstructed in 1818 in neoclassical style by the Russian governor of Poland, the grand duke Constantine. Until 1994 it was—and is again since 2010—the official residence of Poland's president. Now the building is used for some gala state occasions and for some performances during the summer Chopin festival. Belvedere Palace stands just south of the main gates to Łazienki Park. It is not open to visitors.

Now the home of the Academy of Fine Arts, the Czapski Palace dates from the late 17th century but was rebuilt in 1740 in the rococo style. Zygmunt Krasiński, the Polish romantic poet, was born here in 1812, and Chopin once lived in the palace mews.

This 17th-century palace was given a neoclassical front in the 19th century. The courtyard at the rear still contains massive late-Renaissance buttresses and is worth a visit because of its plaque commemorating Zagloba's fight with the monkeys, from Sienkiewicz's historical novel The Deluge. In a small garden in front of the palace stands a monument to Adam Mickiewicz, the great Polish romantic poet. It was here that Warsaw University students gathered in March 1968, after a performance of Mickiewicz's hitherto banned play Forefathers' Eve, which set in motion the events that led to the fall of Poland's Communist leader Władysław Gomułka, a wave of student protests, and a regime-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign.

Today, the palace is the home to the Catholic organization Caritas and is not open to visitors.

This massive Stalinist-Gothic structure looks like a wedding cake and is the main landmark in the city. Some hate it, some love it but it's been a national monument since 2007. From the 30th floor you can get a panoramic view. The old joke runs that this is Warsaw's best view because it is the only place from which you can't see the palace. To view all of urban Warsaw from 700 feet up, buy tickets at the booth near the east entrance. But do see the interiors as well, and try to see beauty in them. The building houses a number of facilities, including a swimming pool and the Museum of Science and Technology, with a display that hasn't changed for several decades, making it charmingly vintage, and not at all high-tech. Curiously, the Palace is also home to several species of animals: cats live in the second level underground, peregrine falcons on the 43rd floor, and, since 2015, there are even beehives.

This palace was built in the 17th century by the Radziwiłł family (into which Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee later married). In the 19th century it functioned as the administrative office of the czarist occupiers—hence its present name. In 1955 the Warsaw Pact was signed here; later the palace served as the headquarters for the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, and since 1995 it has been the official residence of Poland's president. In the forecourt is an equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, a nephew of the last king of Poland and one of Napoléon's marshals. He was wounded and drowned in the Elster River during the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, following the disastrous retreat of Napoléon's Grande Armée from Russia.

The palace is not open to vistors.

A baroque gateway and false moat lead to the wide courtyard that stretches along the front of Wilanów Palace, built between 1681 and 1696 by King Jan III Sobieski. After his death, the palace passed through various hands before it was bought at the end of the 18th century by Stanisław Kostka Potocki, who amassed a major art collection, laid out the gardens, and opened the first public museum here in 1805. Potocki's neo-Gothic tomb can be seen to the left of the driveway as you approach the palace. The palace interiors still hold much of the original furniture; there's also a striking display of 16th- to 18th-century Polish portraits on the first floor. English-speaking guides and audio-guides are available.

Outside of the Pałac Wilanów, to the left of the main entrance, is a romantic park with pagodas, summer houses, and bridges as well as a lake. Behind the palace is a formal Italian garden from which you can admire the magnificent gilt decoration on the palace walls. There's also a gallery of contemporary Polish art on the grounds. Stables to the right of the entrance now house a poster gallery, the Muzeum Plakatu that is well worth visiting—this is a branch of art in which Poles have historically excelled.

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.

On April 19, 1943, the Jewish Fighting Organization began an uprising in a desperate attempt to resist the mass transports to Treblinka that had been taking place since the beginning of that year. Though doomed from the start, the brave ghetto fighters managed to keep up their struggle for a whole month. But by May 16, General Jürgen Stroop could report to his superior officer that "the former Jewish District in Warsaw had ceased to exist." The ghetto had become a smoldering ruin, razed by Nazi flamethrowers. A monument marks the location of the house at nearby ulica Miła 18, the site of the uprising's command bunker and where its leader, Mordechaj Anielewicz, was killed. Today, it stands opposite the main gate of the POLIN museum, which it predates by nearly 70 years.

Unveiled in 1989, this monument constitutes a poignant reminder of what World War II meant for the citizens of Warsaw. Massive bronze figures raise defiant fists above the sewer openings used by Polish resistance fighters in Warsaw's Old Town to escape the Nazis in 1944.

Dating from 1790, Warsaw's oldest cemetery is worth a visit if you are in a reflective mood. Many well-known Polish names appear on the often elaborate headstones and tombs. There is also a recent memorial to the victims of the Katyń Massacre, when 4,000 Polish servicemen, who had been taken prisoner when the Soviets were still aligned with the Nazis, were murdered by the Soviet army on orders from Stalin in 1940 in the Katyń Forest. Enter from ulica Powązkowska.

Warsaw's so-called "New Town" was actually founded at the turn of the 15th century. This part of the city, however, was rebuilt after World War II following popular 18th- and 19th-century styles and has a more elegant and spacious feel about it than the Old Town. The centerpiece of the district is the leafy New Town Square, slightly more irregular and relaxed than its Old Town counterpart. The houses on the square—and in such nearby streets as ulica Kościelna—have curiously stark and formalized wall paintings.

This is the hub of life in Warsaw's Old Town. The earliest settlers arrived at this spot during the 10th and 11th centuries. Legend has it that a peasant named Wars was directed to the site by a mermaid named Sawa—hence the name of the city in Polish, Warszawa. (Sawa has been immortalized in Warsaw's official emblem.) In the 14th century Warsaw was already a walled city, and in 1413 its citizens obtained a borough charter from the princes of Mazovia. The present layout of the Old Town dates from that time, and traces of the original Gothic buildings still surround the Old Town Square. The appearance of today's square, however, largely dates from the 16th and early 17th centuries, when Warsaw's wealth and importance grew rapidly as a result of the 1569 Polish-Lithuanian union and Warsaw's new status as Poland's capital city.

The Old Town Square is usually very active, even though no traffic is allowed and there is no longer a formal market. Artists and craftspeople of all kinds still sell their wares here in the summer, but don't expect many bargains—tourists are their prime targets. Musical performances are often held here on weekends on a stage erected at the north end of the square. Horse-drawn cabs await visitors. To explore some of the square's beautiful and historic houses, visit the Muzeum Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza on the east side of the square and the Muzeum Historyczne Warszawy on the north side. After being almost completely annihilated during World War II, these mansions were meticulously reconstructed using old prints, plans, and paintings. For some of the best Gothic details, look for No. 31, traditionally known as the House of the Mazovian Dukes. At night the square is lit up romantically. If you're after good food and atmosphere, this is one of Warsaw's best places to hang out after dark.

Krzywe Koło (Crooked Wheel Street) runs from the Old Town Square to the reconstructed ramparts of the city wall. From this corner you can see out over the Vistula and also over the New Town stretching to the north beyond the city walls. As you look out over the town walls and down the Vistula embankment, you will see the Stara Prochownia (Old Powder Tower), now a popular venue for poetry readings, music, and drama.

The Polish Houses of the Sejm (parliament) are housed in a round, white debating chamber that was built during the 1920s, after the rebirth of an independent Polish state.

The only way to tour the parliament building is on an organized group tour on a weekday, which you can book online up to three months in advance.

This is the only street in Jewish Warsaw where tenement buildings have been preserved on both sides of the street. It's a melancholy sight, reflecting a world that has all but disappeared. The Lauder Foundation has instigated a plan to restore the street to its original state. No. 9 belonged to Zelman Nożyk, founder of the ghetto synagogue. Since 2004, ulica Próżna and the neighbouring square, Plac Grzybowski, become a stage for the "Singer's Warsaw" Jewish Culture Festival in the summer.

This plaza was the rail terminus from which tens of thousands of the ghetto's inhabitants were shipped in cattle cars to the extermination camp of Treblinka, about 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Warsaw. The school building to the right of the square was used to detain those who had to wait overnight for transport; the beginning of the rail tracks survives on the right. At the entrance to the square is a memorial gateway, erected in 1988 on the 45th anniversary of the uprising.

The high wrought-iron gates of Warsaw University lead into a leafy campus with some beautiful buildings. The Pałac Kazimierzowski (Kazimierzowski Palace), which currently houses the university administration, is among the more historic campus buildings but also a focal point for the university. In the 18th century it was the Military Cadet School where Tadeusz Kościuszko studied.

One of the youngest and certainly one of the best museums in Poland tells the story of the 1944 Rising by means of interactive displays. The museum features a life-size plane, cobblestone streets, reconstructed sewers (vital transportation and evacuation lines during the battles), real objects, photographs, and also video footage and audio recordings. It is a day-by-day account of the heroic struggle of the insurgents, most of them twentysomething years old—often told in their own words. It is impossible not to be involved and moved by it. Allow a minimum of 2½ hours to see the exhibition with a guide. English-language guides are available, but to ensure that you have a guide, you should make a tour reservation on the museum website by emailing a request to the museum, especially in summer. It is possible to wander around on your own as well. Large groups (11-plus persons) must book their entry in advance.

The mermaid is the symbol on the crest of the city of Warsaw. Many legends claim to explain the presence of this misterious creature so far inland. One speaks of two sister-sirens, who swam from the Atlantic to the the Baltic Sea. One settled in Denmark, in Copenhagen, and the other travelled to Gdańsk, and then upstream the Vistula, all the way to Warsaw. There are in fact several statues of the mermaid that can be found all over town. This particular stone statue had been traveling around the city for more than 70 years before finding itself back home in 2000. It had originally been installed in 1855, in the center of a fountain in the Old Town Square.

Warsaw's Royal Castle stands on the east side of Castle Square. The princes of Mazovia first built a residence on this spot overlooking the Vistula in the 14th century. Its present Renaissance form dates from the reign of King Zygmunt III Waza, who needed a magnificent palace for his new capital. Reconstructed in the 1970s, it now gleams as it did in its earliest years, with gilt, marble, and wall paintings. It also houses impressive collections of art—including the famous views of Warsaw that were painted by Canaletto's nephew Bernardo Bellotto (also known as Canaletto), which were used to rebuild the city after the war. Tours in English are available.