DISCOVER WARSAW, VENUE FOR THE 17TH ESCRS WINTER MEETING

Labour and love

If you only visit one place in Warsaw, it should be the Royal Palace, where a temporary exhibition in the Kubicki Arcades documents the widespread use of forced labour in German-occupied Europe during World War II. After witnessing these workers’ grim stories of appalling conditions, it lifts the heart to explore the rest of the splendid palace, product of a labour of love. Though it was blown up by the Nazis in September 1944, local people smuggled away fragments from the rubble, enabling their heroic reconstruction of the palace in the 1970s and 1980s. Arkady Kubickiego, Zamek Królewski, pl Zamkowy 4, Tue-Sat 10-4, Sun 11-4. www.zamek-krolewski.pl. Telephone: + 48 22 355 51 70.

Canvassing Europe

Recently re-opened after re-organisation, Warsaw’s century-old National Museum is facing a brighter future after an unhappy history which saw it looted during World War II. Though many of its treasures have never been returned, its three main galleries still display a rich collection. In the gallery of European Painting, you will find works by Botticelli, Cranach the Elder, Rembrandt, Tintoretto and Vuillard, while the gallery of Polish Painting features works by luminaries of the Młoda Polska (Young Poland) school, including Wyspiański, Mehoffer, and Jan Matejko’s massive Battle of Grunwald, depicting the 1410 high point in Polish military history. Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, al Jerozolimskie 3, Tue-Sun 10-6, Thur 10-9. www.mnw.art.pl. Telephone: +48 22 621 10 31.

Poster man

Meanwhile, the National Gallery’s Poster Museum, at the Summer Palace in Wilanow, is holding a retrospective of a versatile artist whose journey echoes that of many 20th-century Poles. Fleeing the Nazis, Stefan Norblin, his wife and child left Poland in 1939, passing through Iraq and India before emigrating to the US where he died in 1952. His and his wife’s remains were only recently repatriated to Poland where they were given a state funeral on the day this exhibition opened. The No 180 bus takes about an hour to reach Wilanow from the Old Town via the Royal Route. (Remember to validate your ticket when boarding.) Muzeum Plakatu w Wilanowie, ul St Kostki Potockiego 10/16, Mon 12-4, Wed 12-8, Tue, Thur-Sun 10-4, www.mnw.art.pl. Telephone: + 48 22 842 48 48.

Good vibrations

Ever since it opened in 2010, the Copernicus Science Centre, on the banks of the Vistula, has been enormously popular, with adults as well as the children who swarm over its hundreds of interactive exhibits. Its first temporary exhibition explores the physics of sound, encouraging us to find music in ice-cream sticks, egg-slicers and even our own bodies. If you’ve ever wanted to sing like a robot, you can try here. Wszystko Gra, Centrum Nauki Kopernik, ul Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie 20, Tue-Fri 9-6, Sat and Sun 10-5, www.kopernik.org.pl. Telephone: +48 22 596 41 00.

Solid light

Los Angeles recently made a big fuss of its new museum devoted to those ultimate 20th-century artefacts – neon signs. But Warsaw narrowly beat them to it, opening its Neon Museum in May of 2012. Since welcoming 10,000 visitors on its first night, the museum has been busily expanding its collection of neon signs from Poland’s cold war era to include more modern items such as light sculptures. A visit makes a good focus for exploring the arty, fast-changing right-bank district of Praga, home to Warsaw’s edgiest clubs, bars and galleries. Neon Muzeum, Budynek 55, Soho Factory, ul Minska 25, Tue-Sat 12-6, Sun 12-4, www.neonmuzeum.org. Telephone: +48 516 608 881.

Royal patron

Warsaw has no shortage of palaces. Åazienki Palace, the summer residence of the last king of Poland, StanisÅ‚aw August, includes the MyÅ›lewicki Palace, an old orangery and several pavilions, all set in extensive gardens. At its centre is the 17th-century PaÅ‚ac na Wyspie, the Palace on the Isle, where you can get a better idea of the king’s life and times through an exhibition of the paintings of Marcello Bacciarelli, who was not only his favourite painter but helped his patron choose the palace’s superb collection. Muzeum Åazienki Królewski, ul Agrykoli 1, Mon 11-4, Tue, Wed, Sun 9-4, Thur-Sat 9-6, www.lazienki-krolewskie.pl. Telephone: +48 22 50 60 024.

Chopin’s city

The Åazienki Gardens have a statue to Chopin, but you can find the composer and his music everywhere in Warsaw. Concerts of his music take place almost daily. Of the many sites connected with his life, the best place to start is at the Chopin Museum in the Ostrogski Palace. But even out and about in the city it’s easy to hear his music. A legacy of the bicentenary of his birth in 2010 are the benches that play excerpts of his works – including one outside the KoÅ›cioÅ‚ Å›w. Kryża, the baroque Church of the Holy Cross on ul Krakowskie PrzedmieÅ›cie 3, where there is an urn containing his heart. Muzeum Fryderyka Chopina, PaÅ‚ac Ostrogskich, ul Okólnik 1/ul Tamka 41, Tue-Sun 11-8, www.chopin.museum.pl (for all Chopin in Warsaw links). Telephone:+ 48 22 44 16 251. For a guide to the location of the Chopin benches, visit: www.chopin. um.warszawa.pl

From rock to football

Opening in time for Euro 2012, Poland’s new 55,000-seater National Stadium – gleaming red and white on the right bank of the Vistula – has not restricted itself to hosting sporting events. Fans of Madonna and Coldplay have already seen their idols here, while Depeche Mode are due in July 2013. But anyone can take a tour to touch the turf trodden by so many international football stars. Stadion Narodowy, buy tickets at tour reception entrance: al Zieleniecka, ticket office Tue-Sun 9.30-6, tours for individuals at 10am, noon, 2pm, 4pm, and 6pm.

Forever amber

From the earliest times, Poland has been on the amber trade route, crossed by merchants bringing the solidified ancient resin from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and farther south and east. “Amber Beyond the Baltic†is an exhibition that explores its wider distribution and showcases the exceptional relationship Polish craftsmen have with it. See it before you part with your money at a gift shop. Bursztyn nie tylko nad Bałtykiem, PAN Muzeum Ziemi, al Na Skarpie 20-26, Mon-Fri 9-4, Sun 10-4, www.mz-pan.pl. Telephone: + 44 22 621 76 24.

Stalin’s sore thumb

A legacy of the former Soviet administration, Warsaw’s once-hated Palace of Culture is now admired in an ironic fashion by young Poles. Most locals still agree that the best view of the city is from its observation deck on the 30th floor – mainly because that’s the only place in Warsaw from which you cannot see the 237m-high Stalinist skyscraper. Taras Widokowy XXX, Pałac Kultury i Nauki, pl Defilad 1, daily 9-6, www.pkin.pl. Telephone: +48 22 656 76 00.