Palace of Culture and Science

The Palace of Culture and Science went up between 1952 and 1955 and still sets the scale of central Warsaw: 237 metres to the spire, 42 floors, more than three thousand rooms. The style is the tiered, spired socialist realism of the Moscow high-rises, worked with details copied from Polish Renaissance townhouses in Krakow and Zamosc. Inside it is a working cultural building rather than an office block, with theatres, a cinema, two museums, a concert hall and a swimming pool. The thirtieth-floor terrace at 114 metres gives the city's classic view.

History

Construction ran from May 1952 to July 1955 to plans by the architect Lev Rudnev, who added Polish architectural details after travelling around the country, and some 4,000 Polish workers took part. On completion it was the eighth tallest building in the world, its observation deck on the 30th floor stands at 114 metres, and in 1967 the Rolling Stones played its concert hall (Wikipedia, Palace of Culture and Science).

What you'll find

• The thirtieth-floor terrace - an open-air platform at 114 metres, on all four sides.
• The exterior detailing - Renaissance motifs from Krakow and Zamosc cut into the stonework.
• The interiors - marble lobbies, the Congress Hall and the Studio and Dramatyczny theatres.
• The clock - added for the millennium, one of the largest in Europe.

When to go

Year-round. A clear day makes the terrace, and late afternoon puts the light behind the old town. The terrace is open into the evening in summer, which is when the city looks best from it. Winter wind at that height is considerable.

Good to know

The terrace is the whole visit for most people and it is one view, ticketed, often with a lift queue at weekends. The glass towers built around the palace since the 2000s now block part of the panorama. Opinions locally are divided about the building and always have been. The interiors are not on a general tour - you see them by buying a ticket to whatever is on.

Nearby

The central station is across the road; the old town and the Vistula are twenty minutes on foot.

Key facts