Our trip to the Museum of Warsaw (Muzeum Warszawy) was quite spontaneous. It’s one of those places that to postpone going to indefinitely because ‘there’s time for that’ so ‘we’ll go later’. Fortunatelly this time we managed to motivate ourselves enought to plan a #sundayfunday full of culture and history. We decided to kill two birds with one stone and visit Museum of Warsaw as well as an exhibition of Beksiński happening just two streets away from each other.
The main building of the Museum of Warsaw is located in the Old Town, however there’re several different ‘sister museums’ scattered across the city. The result of that is that you can save your coin – for example when you buy tickets for the ‘main museum’ you can use it in the Museum of Praga district for the next seven days. I’ve not been there (because I didn’t know about this option) but it’s definitely worth checking out if you can do it for free. And the Museum of Warsaw itself is definitely worth visiting. I have to admit that I was pleasently surprised with the amount of exhibits and the diveristy of them. There’s something for everyone. So be sure to take that into consideration when planning a trip – you’ll need approximately 1,5 to 2 hours to see it all.
The things of Warsaw
The core exhibition is all about things and items. All kind of items. There are 21 themed rooms filled with ‘The Things of Warsaw’. For example there’s a room just for old postcards, other full of portraits, and another where all kind of Warsaw Mermaids live. Plus there’s a really cool basement with exposed bricks full of archeological findings, statistical data and all the info you might not know about Warsaw’s history, population or tallest buildings. There you can also learn about the tenement houses neighboring the museum. It’s actually way more interesting than it sounds 😉 There’s also a little curiostiy ‘hidden’ in the room of Warsaw monuments. Check your knowledge and see if you know which two of the statues do not exist in Warsaw anymore. Don’t worry if you don’t know, a kind guide with a lot of knowledge will tell you all you need to know.
We enjoy our materialistic lives so our favourites rooms were the ones with retro clothes (there’s a hat that I would wear non stop!) as well as old packaging from different products. We spent quite a lot of time in the room filled with plans and maps of Warsaw. It’s pretty cool to see someone’s vision and be able to compare it with reality, many years later. Another great room is the one full of old clocks and watches. Just find a right spot between the clocks and listen to them. They’re not synchronized perfectly so they make music of their own. So just close your eyes and enjoy your private ambient concert 😉
View of the city
You might be tired of stairs after seeing all of the exhibits (although to most of the floors you can get by an elevator, just last two are out of it’s reach) but don’t give up and be sure to walk all the way to the top. There’s a viewing point from which you can admire colurful building of the Old Town from above. It’s a great picture opportunity and must be quite interesting to see the difference between the picture I took now, in the summer, and one taken in the winter when there’re no tourists and no white umbrellas over restaurants. I’ll definitely come back to heck out that difference.
You can do it for free!
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, all about cultural events and art exhibitions happening in Warsaw this summer, we enjoy visiting museums and art galleries but we enjoy it even more when it’s free. You can visit the Museum of Warsaw for free as well! The entrance is free every thursday. But if you’re not a freelancer working from home and you do have to go to the office like a normal person or you’re in Warsaw just for few days, don’t worry – the tickets are not expensive 🙂 Normal ticket is just 20 złoty (5 euro) and the discounted is 15 złoty (3,5 euro). Museum is open tuesday to sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m
I definitely recommend visiting the Museum of Warsaw. There are dozens of intersting exhibits and their so different that everyone will find something for themselves. Plus the building itself has a great atmosphere. There’s a cool glass part added in the back where you can watch old stautes, the basement has a really industrail feel and old wooden staris remind me of my graddad’s house. If you go to the museum let us know which room was your favourite!
