The best museums Warsaw

This museum occupies an important place in the Polish "ecosystem". Very modern, it has innovated in its presentation and is highly interactive, making it a model that all major museums today tend to follow as they renovate. It continues to create a sensation and is one of the city's most exciting museums. It tells the story of the 1944 uprising and the activities of the Polish underground state during the Second World War, which are often little-known in the West. Even if you're not keen on historical tours, you'll enjoy wandering through this eye-catching exhibition. The museum was opened in 2004 to mark the ^60th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, which began at 5 p.m. on August¹, 1944 and lasted 66 days. The museum is housed in the city's former tramway power station. A true place of national remembrance, dear to the Kaczyński brothers, this museum glorifies the national heroes who tried in vain to liberate their city from the Nazis. The museum is based on an interactive concept, whose patriotic and sentimental aspect may annoy you. However, a visit is a must if you want to understand how contemporary Poles relate to history, nation and religion.

Numerous multimedia documents are collected and arranged with dramatic music and the sound of tanks, in a nightmarish atmosphere that seeks to emotionally recreate the darkness of the period. Some of the panels are not classic museum objects, but rather places of worship, such as the list of the killed, before which Polish visitors come to meditate. If you're a history buff looking to understand the chronology of events, this museum will help. However, it can be easy to get lost in the details presented, as well as in the message the museum wants to deliver, so be sure to concentrate if your aim is to assimilate every detail of this historic event. In fact, if that's your goal, it's a good idea to read up on the insurrection before your visit. This will help you understand the museum's perspective. We recommend Debacle in the camp of the victors - Polish military action 1939-1945 by Wojciech Roszkowski; The Capital of Freedom by Andrzej Kunert, V - symbol of victory; Symbols, signs and patriotic manifestations of fighting Europe 1939-1945 by Tomasz Szarota.

The facts: In 1944, Polish underground authorities decided to launch an uprising in Warsaw against the German occupiers, known as the Warsaw Uprising. Following the uprising, a Polish state operated for 2 months in the capital. The ensuing struggles cost the lives of around 18,000 insurgents and 180,000 civilians. Around 80% of the capital's buildings were razed to the ground by the Germans, both during the uprising and in the subsequent campaign to destroy the city. For a long time, the Communist authorities denied the legitimacy of the uprising and the very existence of the Polish underground state. With democracy established in 1989, the Warsaw Uprising took its place in official memory. That's why one of the main aims of this museum is to promote information about the uprising and to recall its historical reality, long obscured by the Communists.

Symbolically located in the heart of the old Jewish quarter, the museum is comparable in size and historical and cultural importance to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Its inauguration, in October 2014, by the Polish and Israeli presidents, was a colossal event for Poland, which is thus reconnecting with an important page in its history: that tracing the links between Poles and Jews, from the Middle Ages to the tragedy of the Shoah. Designed by Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamaki, the building is one of Warsaw's finest. It features several symbolic elements, including a large breach evoking the passage of the Jews through the Red Sea. Its facade is covered with glass plates featuring Hebrew and Latin letters forming the word Polin, which in Hebrew means "Poland", but also "You will rest here" Persecuted throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, the Jews who arrived in these lands interpreted this word as a good omen, prompting them to settle here. From the ^16th to the end of the ^18th century, Poland was an exceptional haven of tolerance, welcoming up to 80% of the world's Jewish population. The permanent exhibition is extraordinarily rich. Covering an area of over 4,200^m2 and featuring an interactive approach, it tells the story of what was once the world's largest Jewish community, from the year 1000 to the present day, including its most dramatic aspects, such as the anti-Semitism of Polish society, the pogroms and the Shoah. Touch screens, films, reproductions, photographs, archive documents, testimonials and spectacular reconstructions, such as the polychrome dome of the Gwozdziec synagogue, make the chronological narrative dynamic, captivating and utterly moving. Organized into 8 sections, the tour retraces the settlement and flourishing of Jews in medieval Poland, thanks to legislation guaranteeing freedom of worship and autonomy. It then looks at Jewish life in the country from the 16th^{to the 18th} century, as well as the rise of anti-Semitism which, from 1772 to 1914, was amplified under Russian domination. We then discover the immense richness of Jewish culture in Warsaw at the beginning of the ^20th century, erased by the Nazis (who exterminated 3 million Polish Jews) and by the post-war Communist regime. The museum organizes temporary exhibitions, lectures and workshops, and boasts a superb restaurant.

Located next to the National Museum, in the same building, this museum traces the history of the Polish army from its origins to the Second World War, with a display of uniforms and weapons. In the garden, you'll find an impressive collection of heavy equipment: tanks, armored vehicles and even aircraft, all in a state of near-abandonment. It's an opportunity to discover life-size war vehicles. Admission to the open-air exhibition is free.

This museum engages visitors in an immersive experience, with recordings, videos, installations and thematic rooms. It presents a rich and detailed account of Chopin's life. In the basement, a listening room with digital books allows visitors to discover wonderful recordings of the master's work. The museum, located a stone's throw from Nowy Swiat, is housed in the superb Ostrogski Palace, which in the ^19th-20th centuries was the seat of the Conservatory.

Tucked away in a courtyard, the Fotoplastikon is a good introduction to your discovery of Warsaw. Sitting on wooden stools in front of small binoculars, you watch images of the city since 1901 scroll by, to a background of classical music with the crackle of a phonograph. All this adds to the magic of the place. Entirely period and miraculously spared by the wars, it is one of the last stereoscopes of Europe in activity. An original and playful museum that offers a beautiful 20-minute journey in the Warsaw of the beginning of the century.

The great physicist Marie Curie (Maria Skłodowska-Curie) was born in this ^18th-century house (a replica of the original) in the new town in 1867. Before she emigrated to France and took an active part in the life of Polish émigrés in Paris, particularly in the political struggle for the country's independence, Maria Skłodowska attended Warsaw University. Her birthplace has now been transformed into a museum that traces the life and discoveries of the physicist. An ideal opportunity to retrace the footsteps of this great female figure.

The National Museum of Warsaw is one of the largest in Poland. It boasts a rich collection of ancient art, including Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, as well as a gallery of Polish and foreign paintings. Some of the paintings on display are from Adolf Hitler's private collection. The Oriental Art Department includes the country's largest collection of Chinese art. There is also a gallery dedicated to Polish and European medieval art.