Museums, Zhytomyr

The National Nikolai Pirogov Estate Museum, situated in the picturesque park in the outskirts of Vinnytsia, is not just the most interesting town sight, but an important object of the cultural heritage of Ukraine. Nikolai Pirogov is a prominent scientist, talented physician, inventor of anaesthesia and field martial surgery, founder of the Red Cross Society and notable public figure. It's hard to overvalue his contribution to the development of medicine, and in particular - of surgery. In 1847 Pirogov invented ether narcosis and applied it for the first time during the war on the Caucasus. Later the prominent surgeon conducted hundreds of successful operations on the battlefield with its help. One more invention of Pirogov, without which it's impossible to imagine modern medicine, is gypsum bandage to fixate fractures. The doctor widely applied it during the Crimean War: back then it allowed reducing the number of amputations among injured in dozens of times. Very few people know that the white disinfected doctor's robe is also Pirogov's invention, for which, by the way, he was considered to be a madman and was even put in the psychiatric clinic for several days. Moreover, the scientist introduced a number of new medical techniques and methods of surgical operations. The structure of the museum is unique. The house, where Nikolai Pirogov lived, is in the center of the museum's complex: vast exposition, which has 12 sections telling about certain periods of his life and work, is located here. Special attention is paid to the scientist's genius inventions that helped to save thousands of human lives. In the manor you may see the study, where Nikolai Pirogov worked, his personal things, books, surgical instruments, pictures. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/central-ukraine/vinnytsia/340

The outdoor museum of architecture and life Mamajeva Sloboda is situated not far from the city center, near one of the capital’s picturesque parks. It is an authentic cultural complex that reproduces Cossack settlement of 17th – 18th century. Not only original architectural buildings of Cossack age, but also inimitable atmosphere and spirit of that time were recreated there. The culture and entertainment complex Mamajeva Sloboda is situated in the historical place – at the source of the Lybid River. These lands once belonged to the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral and was occupied by monastery apiary with farm and pond. Later, gardens were planted and a park was laid out in this area, but the ethnic saksen with neat Ukrainian huts under golden straw roofs didn’t appear there until 2009. The museum got its name in honour of the legendary Cossack Mamai – one of the Ukrainian Cossack folklore’s most popular characters, whose image could be found next to the icons in almost every house at Cossack times. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/kyiv/kyiv/1540

Situated next to Zhulyany Airport (Kyiv), the Aviation Museum is one of the largest museums in the capital and is reckoned among the largest historical and technical museums of Ukraine. At its opening in 2003, museum’s exposition numbered thirty aircraft, and now more than seventy exhibits – helicopters, planes, as well as samples of aircraft armoury, unmanned aircraft and engines – can be seen on its territory of almost 20 hectares. Presented machines include both widespread and rare ones. There are also exhibits that exist only in a single copy, such as Soviet pilot plane with airborne early-warning radar An-71. In addition, you can see the first Soviet airliner and the famous MiG-25, which set an absolute world record for flight altitude – 37 km. Museum’s exhibits are arranged according to topics, design offices, and their role in history. The Kyiv Aviation Museum presents products of almost all the leading aviation design offices of the Soviet period – Tupolev, Yakovlev, Ilyushin, Antonov, Sukhoi, Mikoyan-Gurevich, Kamov, Mil, Beriev. Some collections of planes and helicopters are reckoned among the most complete in the world at that. Exclusive items include the first prototype Il-86, the first Il-18 and Tu-104 of mass production, preseries Tu-134, as well as Tu-22M0 from the test batch. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/kyiv/kyiv/2424

Spread out in Kyiv’s picturesque surroundings, the Culture and History Center ‘Park Kyivan Rus’ is a unique project in its nature and scale that has no analogues in Ukraine and even in Europe. It recreates architectural appearance and atmosphere of princely Kyiv with amazing accuracy, taking visitors on a time travel to the Middle Ages and bringing them in the very heart of one of the most influential states in Eastern Europe – the Old Rus. It was decided to create the park exactly in this place for the reason that it is a historically important territory not far from the capital. It is mentioned in antique chronicles and its landscape is very close to the relief and vegetation of the Old Kyiv. The creators of the Culture and History Center brilliantly recreate the ensemble of the Kyiv stronghold – the historical core of the ancient city – as it looked under the rule of the Prince Vladimir the Great. It is from Kyiv kremlin (another name for the medieval stronghold) that the origin and development of Kyiv and the Old Rus started. Later it became the cradle of Slavic civilization. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/kyiv/kyiv/1527

The narrow streets of the ancient Podol shelter one of the most unusual and interesting museums of Ukraine's capital, the Pharmacy Museum, whose unique exposition is devoted to the history of the pharmacy. It is located in the building where the German pharmacist Johann Heiter opened Kyiv's first private drugstore in 1728. After Heiter's death, his son-in-law Georg Bunge inherited the pharmacy business and made the drugstore very popular among Kyiv's residents. It could brag about one of the largest assortments of drugs in the city - about a thousand names. All drugs that were sold here (ointments, pills, mixtures) were made in the pharmacy's laboratory only from natural components: healing herbs, minerals, shells, animal blood and the poison of insects and reptiles. In addition, the Bunge's drugstore, as it was nicknamed by the Kyiv locals, was intended for the very broad sections of the public: it had two sections and respectively to separate drug registries, for poor and wealthy townspeople. Of course, the structure and quality of the drugs were different. Few centuries ago pharmacies sold not only drugs, but also creams, powder, perfumes, tooth powder, and even ink, cans and tubes, which are now the unique exhibits of the Kyiv Pharmacy Museum. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/kyiv/kyiv/997

The Kyiv Fortress is one of the most important and interesting military monuments in the Ukrainian capital, well-known far beyond the country’s borders. It is the largest earthen fortress in Europe and the second-largest earthen fortress in the world. The museum exhibitions housed there and the fortification complex itself are among the most visited places of interest in Kyiv – every year it welcomes about one hundred thousand tourists. The Kyiv Fortress, also known as Nova Pechersk Fortress, was built on a site of Old Pechersk Fortress, walled around the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. It was erected by the order of Emperor Peter the Great in the first half of the 18th century. It contained four main fortifications, as well as dozens of defensive areas such as towers, walls, underground passages, powder warehouses, arsenals, barracks, and even the castle prison. Then the Kyiv Fortress featured the so-called hand-made tsunamis for city defence from the riverside. It was composed of two dams and two large pits, which could be filled with water within hours to defeat the enemy fleet with a powerful wave. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/kyiv/kyiv/2539

The Kyiv Toy Museum is a truly unique place, interesting for both, children and adults. For the first ones it is an opportunity to plunge into the fairy world, where hundreds of different heroes live, for the latter ones - a chance to feel nagging nostalgia, and at the same time to learn many interesting facts about the history of toys as an integral part of the country's culture. The Toy Museum, opened in 2005, is one of the youngest in the capital. Nevertheless, its impressive collection numbering over 10 thousand exhibits exists over 80 years! It is based on the items that were gathered for the toy exhibition, which took place back in 1936. Today, the museum's exposition visually demonstrates the history of national toy production and is the vivid evidence that Ukraine rightly occupied the second place among the Soviet republics in volumes and quality of manufactured children toys. Museum shelves are 'inhabited' by hundreds of different dolls and teddy animals, technical and construction toys, as well as a unique collection of board, printed games. Besides commercial items, museum funds include exclusive author's works by soviet puppet-makers and authentic collection of Ukrainian folk toys. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/kyiv/kyiv/955

Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Studies Museum (Івано-Франківський краєзнавчий музей; Ivano-Frankivskyi kraieznavchyi muzei). Regional studies museum founded in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk) in 1940 on the basis of several existing collections, including the Zhabie ‘Hutsulshchyna’ Museum. http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CI%5CV%5CIvano6FrankivskRegionalStudiesMuseum.htm

Having absorbed baroque and renaissance traits, the building of the parish Church of Virgin Mary is among the most beautiful and most valuable architectural monuments in Ivano-Frankivsk. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/ivano-frankivsk/786

Situated not far from Ivano-Frankivsk, the ancient town Kolomyya is notable for its vivid history and inimitable colour. However, it is mostly associated with the unique Pysanka Museum – the only museum in the world, whose exposition is devoted to the art of painting Easter eggs. Ukraine has an age-old tradition of decorating eggs with the plot or ornamental patterns using wax and special dyes, however, it is the Hutsul region where this tradition is especially honoured. The locals even create legends about this ancient art. One of them states that a terrible beast is chained to a high rock in the Carpathian Mountains. Each year it carefully watches that people don’t forget the custom of painting Easter eggs. If there are just a few pysanka (painted Easter eggs), the beast spreads evil on the earth, but, if there are enough painted eggs, love and good defeat evil, and the chains squeeze the evil monster with deadly force. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/ivano-frankivsk/1089

The museum of the sacral baroque sculpture is reckoned among the Lviv’s most interesting and impressive museums. It keeps the unique heritage of Johann Georg Pinsel – one of the most talented and mysterious sculptors of the 18th century. He is nicknamed Ukrainian Michelangelo for extraordinary mastery. The museum is situated in the building of the age-old Catholic Church, which formerly belonged to the Franciscan monks. It is a valuable monument of Lviv’s architecture. The cathedral is notable for the fact that its interior has preserved the skillfully made frescos of the 18th century, illustrating plots from the Old and New Testament. The Lviv Museum of sacral baroque sculpture keeps the largest collection of Johann Pinsel’s works. His creative work is recognized as an outstanding phenomenon in Ukrainian and world cultures’ history. The original Ukrainian master with European education created inimitable religious sculptures, which had no analogues in the Old World of the second half of the 18th century. It was Pinsel who founded the new artistic center, which later was named the Lviv School of Sacral Sculpture. In the 1750s, he actively created original figures for the St. Jura Cathedral, one of the most beautiful Lviv temples, St. Martin Church and many other West Ukrainian churches. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/2331

Museum Pharmacy «Pid Chornym Orlom» (Beneath the Black Eagle) This pharmacy was founded in 1735; it is the oldest pharmacy in the city of Lviv. http://lviv.travel/en/index/what_to_do/lvivgalleries/museums/~74/museum-pharmacy-under-the-black-eagle

The Lviv National Museum, situated in the very beautiful building on Svobody Avenue, is one of the largest museums in Ukraine that features a considerable collection of Ukrainian visual arts. It was founded by the Greek Catholic metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, whose name it has now. Initially, it was a Church Museum and was aimed to develop Ukrainian national culture. The core of the National Museum’s current exposition is its founder’s personal collection, numbering about 10 thousand valuable works of art. A quarter of a century later, the funds of the Lviv Museum had more than 80 thousand exhibits and now, there are almost 120 thousand works of visual arts. It houses country’s largest collections of Ukrainian icons, dated to the 14th – 18th centuries, and of medieval sacred and folk arts: sculptures, manuscripts, engravings, old printed books, pottery, bone and metal works. National Museum’s pride is pictorial canvases by eminent Ukrainian artists: Ivan Trush, Oleksa Novakivsky, Kornil Ustiyanovich, Elena Kulchytska and others. The highlight of the museum's collection is a number of original works by Taras Shevchenko. Paintings by contemporary Lviv artists are exhibited here as well. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1361

Svobody Avenue is the city main street combining functions of the business and cultural center. It is Lviv’s second most important historical spot after Rynok Square. The avenue owes its status as one of the most beautiful and elegant streets in the city to its splendid architecture, which harmonically combines traits of various historical styles. Elegant ancient houses, framing it from both sides, are Svobody Avenue’s main adornment and create its unique atmosphere. Once, the western line of Lviv fortifications, called Lower Walls, was located there. In the late 18th century, when the city was under the governance of Austria-Hungary, dilapidated fortifications were pulled down and the even side of the modern avenue was formed. The odd side was constructed on the marshy bank of the Plotva River, which was hidden under the ground, later. Svobody Avenue’s most attractive building, its symbol and highlight, is the magnificent Opera House. Other notable structures include the elegant National Museum, the former Galych Credit Fund (currently the Museum of Ethnography and Arts Crafts), the Viennese Coffee House and the Grand Hotel. One of the Svobody Avenue’s most recognizable sights is the unusual monument to Taras Shevchenko with 12-meter-high bronze stele ‘Wave of National Renaissance,’ installed in its center. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1362

Wherever you go in Lviv, you are inevitably astonished by its inimitable and varied architecture. However, the Potocki Palace, hiding behind the open-worked forged fence on one of the streets that radiate from the main city artery, Svobody Avenue, stands out against the background of majestic ancient buildings, huddling in the downtown. It's an elegant building, whose luxurious forms are reminiscent of French Renaissance castles, is rightly considered to be one of the most interesting and beautiful monuments of architecture in Lviv. In the middle of the 19th century, a park with a small hunting homestead, owned by the noble Polish family Potocki, was located on the modern palace’s place. A legend states that Potocki family owned these lands since the 17th century. In 1860, Count Alfred II Potocki ordered to pull down the mansion and to build a big gala palace on its place. The palace was intended for solemn receptions and high-rank meetings. As long as the count was in fond of exquisite French architecture, he chose the project of the prominent architect from France and hired Polish architect Julian Tsibulsky to adapt and implement it. The customer wasn’t destined to see the palace; he had died before the construction was finished and his son continued to supervise the building process, afterwards. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1290

This remarkable construction (1906-1925), built in flamboyant neogothic style, stands partly on the ruins of a medieval royal court mentioned in documents dating from 1434. Today, the 365-room palace houses the Gheorghe Asachi Library and four of the city's museums: the Moldavian History Museum, the Ethnographic Museum, the Museum of Art and the Museum of Science and Technology http://romaniatourism.com/iasi.html#museums

Poltava Local History Museum is one of the oldest and the most interesting museums in Ukraine. It houses a unique collection of authentic items and antiquities that introduce the history, nature and culture of Poltava region, as well as true treasures of the world history, including artefacts from Ancient Egypt, India, China and Japan. The museum is reckoned among the most visited ones in the city: yearly, about half a million Poltava locals and guests visit its original expositions. The Local History Museum is situated in the building of the former province Zemstvo (elective district council in pre-revolutionary Russia) that was built in Ukrainian art nouveau style, in the early 20th century. Being recognized as an eminent architectural masterpiece, it is often called a stone flower, in which traditions of folk architecture, old Ukrainian ornaments and innovative designer forms interweave. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/eastern-ukraine/poltava/1390

A lot of sights in Poltava are connected with the name of the classical Ukrainian writer and dramatist Ivan Kotliarevsky who lived the greater part of his life and created his most famous works here - among them the prominent poem 'Aeneid'. His Museum-Mansion at the town's historical center near the Assumption Cathedral is one of Poltava's most picturesque and most visited sights. The real mansion, where the prominent writer lived and worked didn't survive. In 1969, however - to Kotliarevsky's 200th anniversary - it was reconstructed upon watercolour sketches by another Ukrainian classical writer - Taras Shevchenko. The memorial complex, fenced with flower-twined paling, consists of a dwelling house - the typical Ukrainian hut from the 18h century - warehouse and well with a sweep. Fragments and details of Ivan Kotliarevsky's old house were embedded in the recreated mansion. Thanks to the recollections of writer's contemporaries, the Museum-Mansion's interior was renewed as accurate as possible. Kotliarevsky's personal belongings, awards, manuscripts and everyday knickknacks from the 18th - early 19th centuries are kept here. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/eastern-ukraine/poltava/622

The museum hosts an exhibition held on 900 square meters, which exhibits over 1,000 samples of minerals, rocks and fossils. There are other 15,000 pieces in the institution's warehouses. The Museum of Mineralogy in Baia Mare is the largest regional museum in Europe, many of the exhibits being considered unique in the world and heritage values. The unofficial, cultural name par excellence and unanimously used is the Museum of Mine Flowers. except for some component crystals, which totally make the piece well individualized compared to the others ”(Victor Gorduza - director of the institution). On the ground floor, the basic exhibition presents the geological composition of North-West Romania, the systematics of hydrothermal minerals and non-ferrous metal deposits on the southern frame of the Oaș-Gutâi mountains, as well as in Țibleș and the Borșa-Vişeu area. Upstairs, the exhibition space includes the most impressive pieces, full of poetry and colour, wrapped in ambient music that creates an image-melodic syncretism conducive to high-profile cultural events - here is the annual awards ceremony " Books of the Year ”, organized by the county branch of the Romanian Writers' Union. https://www.baiamare.ro/ro/Descopera-Baia-Mare/Obiective-turistice-si-atractii/Muzee/Muzeul-de-Mineralogie/

The Tailors' Tower (Baba Novac Street / Stefan cel Mare Square) is part of the second fortified precinct of the walls system and of the fortifications of the city, built in the first half of 15th century and continued until the 17th century. It was built on the South-Eastern corner of the city defence wall, after 1405, following the privileges keyed by King Sigismund of Luxemburg. The first confirmed documents date 1457, from the time of King Matia Corvin. The administration of the Tower was entrusted to the most powerful guilds of the town – the tailors' guild. Over time, the Tower was devastated several times (1551-1553, 1601, 1627, and 1707). The actual shape is given by the last big reconstruction from 1709-1711, made by the Austrians, out of over 150 stone wagons. The Tower has renewed again in 1956-1957 when they attempted the opening of a history museum of the city of Cluj, a project forbidden by the communist authorities in 1959. http://www.visitclujnapoca.ro/en/atractii-turistice/monumente-si-complexe-arhitectonice/page/4/the-tailors-tower.html

The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca is a public institution of a culture whose mission is to preserve, research and put forward the real and virtual patrimony of Romanian and universal art. With a collection of over 12,000 paintings, sculptures, graphic arts and decorative pieces, it is considered one of the most important museums in Romania. Founded as an institution in 1951, the museum has been operating since 1956 in the Banffy Palace – a baroque building which was built based on the plans of the architect J.E. Blaumann during the years 1774-1785, its destination being that of residence for the governor of Transylvania. It is the most important baroque edifice in Cluj-Napoca and one of reference for the 18th-century Romanian architecture. A series of sculptures with remarkable artistic value made by Anton Schuchbauer were added to the building in order to complete its stone architectural decorations. http://www.visitclujnapoca.ro/en/atractii-turistice/muzee/the-art-museum-of-clujnapoca.html

The “Emil Racoviţă” Speleology Museum was established in 1998, and it is the only museum in Romania dedicated to the scientist Emil Racoviţă and to the cave science. Emil Racoviţă is the founder of biospeleology and of the first Speleology institute in the world, which was opened in Cluj-Napoca in 1920. The results of the biospeleology program initiated by E. Racoviţă were exceptional: 1,200 explored caves throughout Europe and Africa, a collection of 50,000 copies of cave fauna, 66 scientific studies adding up to approximately 6,000 pages. Racoviţă reached the peak of his scientific career when he elaborated an original theory regarding evolution. The museum also includes The Emil Racoviţă Collection with numerous varied exhibition pieces like a notebook from the period when Racoviţă was a student at the Paris-Sorbonne University (1886-1891), the Zeiss microscope and the Linhof photo device which he used in his “Belgica” Antarctic expedition (1897-1899), the projector and slides he used when teaching his General Biology course at the Science University in Cluj, original drawings illustrated in his scientific works, personal desk objects. The building in which the museum operates is an old medieval prison (from the 14th century up to the 19th century) and it is considered a national historical monument dating back to 1376. http://www.visitclujnapoca.ro/en/atractii-turistice/muzee/the-emil-racovita-speleology-museum.html

The Matthias Corvinus House (or Mehffy House) is a stylish building in gothic style from the 15th century (today, Art and Design University of Cluj Napoca). In this house, which was the city’s inn in past, was born on 23rd of February 1443 Matia Corvin, the son of the vaivode of Transylvania, John Hunyadi (Ioan de Hunedoara). Matia Corvin was the greatest king of Hungary (1458-1490), he was learned, patron of arts, wise and just, being mentioned in songs and legends even today. In 1467, he acquited the owners of the house in which he was born from paying taxes and fees to the city. This privilege was enforced by the next kings and princes. The house served as different institutions. It was a college but was also home for the ethnographic collections of the Transylvanian Carpathian Society. Over time, the building has suffered various changes, adapted to the new architectural styles. The basement and some platband of windows and doors that have lintels in the oblique section are characteristic of the gothic style. During the first half of the 16th century appeared the first elements of the Renaissance: some platbands from Renaissance on the facade, with denticles, together with gothic elements, as well as the portal in a broken arch. The original arches were chiefly replaced. During the 18th century, the building was made a hospital and the yard had suffered a few baroque changes. At the end of the 19th century, the building was in an advanced state of degradation and it was restored. Many elements of Art Nouveau, Secession were introduced, being in fashion at that time. In the ’50s of the last century, the modifications of Art Nouveau were removed, being incompatible with the architecture of the building, which gained the present appearance. http://www.visitclujnapoca.ro/en/atractii-turistice/best-of-cluj-napoca/the-matthias-corvinus-house.html

Founded in 1922 by professor Romulus Voia, the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania entered the elite of the Romanian ethnographic museums, due to the exceptional quality of its patrimony. It is currently composed of over 41.000 traditional peasant objects from 17th-20th centuries and a documentary fund of over 80.000 items. The museum has two sections: the Pavilion Section and „Romulus Vuia” ethnographic Park (the open-air section). The Pavilion Section functions in „Reduta” Palace – a historical monument that dates since the 16th century. The current pavilion exhibition, vernished on 16th of December and called „Traditional folk culture from Transylvania in the 18th-20th centuries”, rebuilds, with talent, the way in which the Transylvanian peasantry lived two centuries ago. As testimonies remained simple tools or ingenious equipment used in domestic activities, culminating with rich folk suits, which showed not only the stage of the life but also the social position of the one who wore them. There are also presented traditional costumes of the life cycle, the calendar ones and the peasant costumes, with an essential role in highlighting the regional and ethnic identity. Curiosities: With a history of more than 80 years, the museum is the greatest of this kind in Romania and among the most prestigious in Europe (the sixth). The museum functions in „Reduta” building, which housed during 1848-1865 the Transylvanian Diet. The famous trial of the authors of the Transylvanian Memorandum took place in this building in 1894-1895. It has 50.000 photos, 5.000 diapositives, 12.000 specialised magazines. http://www.visitclujnapoca.ro/en/atractii-turistice/best-of-cluj-napoca/the-ethnographic-museum-of-transylvania.html

The National Ethnographic Vuia, established in 1929, bears the name of its founder and first museum manager, Professor Romulus Vuia. The exhibited pieces are in fact old traditional buildings, grouped according to their regional establishments, folk architecture monuments, folk installations, craftsman workshops, wells, gateways, big wooden crosses and indoor textiles. Interesting facts: •The Ethnographic Museum is the oldest from Romania; •The oldest exhibit pieces date back from 1678; •The church from Cizer-Salaj, at the construction of which contributed Nicola Ursu (Horea), just before the 1784 uprising, is one of the most beautiful wooden churches in Transylvania; weddings are still being officiated in this architectural monument; •It hosts annual fairs and traditional cultural manifestations. http://www.visitclujnapoca.ro/en/atractii-turistice/muzee/the-romulus-vuia-national-ethnographic-park.html

The reconstructed Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, the former political, diplomatic, cultural center of the State, was one of the most famous in Europe in the 15th-17th centures and was demolished in the beginning of the 19th century. This Palace is excellent located just in the heart of Vilnius, within the confines of Lower Castle. Nowadays the Gothic, Renaissance and Early Baroque halls of this multifunctional Museum are ideally applicable to organize a different size and content public events, official visits, conferences, meetings, seminars, concerts, performances, receptions and other. http://vilnius-tourism.lt/en/what-to-see/museums/palace-of-the-grand-dukes-of-lithuania/

Danube Delta History Museum- is located at 32 Progresului St (Tel: (240) 515.866) and is a good introduction to the region's flora and fauna plus the traditional way of life of the Danube Delta's fishermen. http://www.tulcea.com/

This vast park is a favourite place for Varsovians where they go for long walks amid beautiful nature and architecture to rest from the hustle and bustle of the city. At the heart of the park is the summer residence of the last king of Poland – Stanisław August Poniatowski. The name of the complex comes from the seventeenth-century bathhouse of a Polish nobleman, rebuilt in the 18th century into a palace. Here, in the Palace on the Island, King Stanisław August Poniatowski hosted his famous Thursday dinners, to which he invited scholars and poets to discuss the issues of the day. Today it is a museum where you can admire paintings from the royal collections. In the grounds of Łazienki you will also see an orangery, an amphitheatre, an eighteenth-century court theatre, the Museum of Hunting and Horse-riding, the Myślewicki Palace and numerous free-standing sculptures. http://warsawtour.pl/en/project/lazienki-krolewskie-museum-2/

The District Museum in Rzeszów is a multi-faceted institution located in the historic 17th century Piarist building at 3 Maja 19 Street. The historical monastery complex includes the former male school of the Order of Piarists (currently I High School). The center of the architectural complex is occupied by the parish church of Saint. Cross with a beautiful interior design. http://www.rzeszow.pl/kultura-i-sport/galerie/galeria-fotografii-miasta-rzeszowa

The museum houses a magnificent collection of over 830,000 exhibits from all periods, from antiquity to the present. Masterpieces of Polish and world art are presented in themed galleries. In the Faras Gallery you can see the largest collection of Nubian artefacts in Europe from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries, including a unique collection of wall paintings. They come from the flooded Christian cathedral at Faras in Sudan and depict divinities, dignitaries and saints. Authentic 15th-century altars from various regions of Poland, Gothic sculptures and paintings for private prayer houses can be seen in the Gallery of Medieval Art. If you want to understand the role of art in the past, this is the place for you. In the Gallery of Old Art, you will be transported to an era when painting and sculpture functioned on a par with crafts. Next to paintings and sculptures, you will see beautifully decorated furniture, fabrics and dishes, and even the coat and coronation insignia of the King Augustus III. Don’t forget to check out the schedule of temporary exhibitions. http://warsawtour.pl/en/project/national-museum/

Fryderyk Chopin is one of the most famous Varsovians and a trip to his museum is a must on any visit to Warsaw. It is located in the historic Ostrogski Palace and is one of the most modern biographical museums in Europe. The exhibits and multimedia displays tell the story of the life and the work of the composer. You will learn everything about his childhood and youth spent in Warsaw and his life after he emigrated. You will see letters written to him and by him, drawings and dedications. You will see portraits made during the composer’s lifetime, his hand casting, his death mask and priceless memorabilia: a gold watch given to the 10-year-old artist in recognition of his talent, a candy box, a keyring with his initials, a cufflink, and a priceless Pleyel piano on which the composer played for the last two years of his life. https://warsawtour.pl/en/project/chopin-museum-in-warsaw/

Zachęta is one of the oldest showrooms in Poland. The impressive building was built between 1898-1900 and designed by Stefan Szyller. All the most outstanding Polish artists’ presented their works in Zachęta, including Wojciech Gerson, Jan Matejko, Józef Chełmoński, Józef Brandt, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer and many others. http://www.warsawtour.pl/en/tourist-attractions/zach-ta-national-gallery-of-art-zach-ta-narodowa-galeria-sztuki-2439.html

The highest and most recognisable building in Warsaw can be seen from almost every part of the capital. Where did it come from? It was opened in 1955 on the initiative of Joseph Stalin as a “gift of the Soviet people for the Poles”. Built by Russian workers, for a long time, it was considered to be a symbol of socialist power and the pride of People’s Poland – it was where conventions of the Polish United Workers’ Party took place. Since its very beginning, its monumental interiors have hosted numerous concerts, exhibitions, fairs and shows. Currently, the palace is home to theatres, a cinema, museums, trendy pubs and the main Warsaw Tourist Information office. Go up to the observation deck on the 30th floor of the building and see the beautiful panorama of the city from a height of 114 metres. Take a look at the socialist realist sculptures placed in the niches of the palace’s facade. Each symbolises a different field of science, art, technology or culture, for example a young man with a book of classical literature, a member of komsomol, an archer and a woman from Central Asia. In a direct line from the main entrance, you will find a stone honour tribune, from which the first secretaries of the Central Committee of the Polish communist party greeted those marching on the May Day parade. http://warsawtour.pl/en/project/palace-of-culture-and-science-2/