WARSAW, Poland—Take a walk through Warsaw’s old town, and soon enough, you’ll meet King Sigismund III Vasa (1566–1632), who stands tall atop a column between the colorful old buildings and the pink façade of the Royal Castle.
Having been plundered, raised to the ground, and rebuilt several times, the Royal Castle in Warsaw today stands as a symbol of Polish patriotism, incorporating medieval, baroque, and neoclassical architectural styles with Polish panache.
In the early 14th century, long before the castle became a royal residence, the Duchy of Masovia had built a wooden castle and tower on the site.
In 1568, King Sigismund II Augustus (1520–1572) was the first royal to establish his court at the castle, which then became the seat of parliament (Sejm) in 1569. In 1596, King Sigismund III Vasa moved the seat of the commonwealth and royal power to Warsaw and expanded the castle to the five-winged structure that it is today.
Between the end of the 17th century and the start of the 18th century, the Saxon–Wettin dynasty added a baroque-style wing.
In the second half of the 18th century, the last king of the Polish–Lithuanian commonwealth, Stanislaw II Augustus Poniatowski, commissioned architects Johann Christian Kammsetzer (Dresden) and Domenico Merlini (Italy) and painter Marcello Bacciarelli (Italy) to create neoclassical style interiors (known as the Stanislavian style).
The castle we see today was painstakingly reconstructed after World War II had left Warsaw and the Royal Castle in ruins. While a castle reconstruction committee quickly formed in June 1945, the communist regime forbade the rebuilding of a monument that supported the lost Polish monarchy.
In 1971, the Polish people, not the state, paid for the reconstruction. Some of the original objects and architectural fragments were incorporated into the reconstruction. These included precious items that firemen, museum employees, conservator-restorers, and civilians risked their lives to save and hide during the Nazi occupation.
To find out more about the Royal Castle in Warsaw, visit Zamek-Krolewski.pl
Lorraine Ferrier
Author
Lorraine Ferrier writes about fine arts and craftsmanship for The Epoch Times. She focuses on artists and artisans, primarily in North America and Europe, who imbue their works with beauty and traditional values. She's especially interested in giving a voice to the rare and lesser-known arts and crafts, in the hope that we can preserve our traditional art heritage. She lives and writes in a London suburb, in England.