Located on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, one of the best known and most prestigious streets of Poland's capital, not far from Historic Centre of Warsaw (an UNESCO WHS since 1980) the Presidential Palace is the elegant classicist latest version of a building that has stood on this site since 1643. For its first 175 years, the palace was the private property of several aristocratic families, in 1791 it hosted the authors and advocates of the Constitution, and in 1818 it began its ongoing career as a governmental structure, when it became the seat of the Viceroy of the Polish (Congress) Kingdom under Russian occupation. Following Poland's resurrection after WWI, the building was taken over by the authorities and became the seat of the Council of Ministers. During WWII, it served the country's German occupiers as a Deutsches Haus and survived miraculously the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After the war, it resumed its function as seat of the Polish Council of Ministers, and in 1955 the Warsaw Treaty was signed here. Since 1994 it has been the official seat of the President of the Republic of Poland.
Read more »