This time it will be serious, nostalgic, and sometimes just sad. We are taking you to the Warsaw Rising Museum, commemorating the famous ’63 days of glory’. This is exactly how long the patriotic armed uprising of Poles lasted.
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Warsaw Rising Museum – tour
We started our tour of the Warsaw Rising Museum with a phone call to the insurgent. That’s one of the many interactive attractions. When we put the handset to the ear and press the appropriate button, we listened to authentic insurgent memories. The speeches are recorded, of course, you don’t call someone live, but they really work on the imagination.
We quickly realize that the whole museum has the atmosphere of wartime Warsaw. All three floors are decorated in a similar style. Raw walls, granite pavement and the way of lighting the interior make us easily move to the 1940s.
The unique atmosphere is also created by the well-preserved, original fragments of old buildings and walls. Or replicas of them. Below is a copy of a German bunker captured by the Warsaw insurgents. Of course, you can go inside and look through the small windows shown in the photo below.
The most striking exhibit of the Warsaw Rising Museum is a replica of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator aircraft. The model was made in a 1:1 scale. It’s really impressive in size and we guarantee that you won’t pass by it indifferently. An interesting fact: original parts of a real Liberator shot down by German troops in Lesser Poland were used to build the exhibit.
A separate room is the printing house, where there are (still working!) printing devices. Thanks to them leaflets with insurgent slogans, announcements and underground press were created during the war. There is also an opportunity to see a classic typewriter (Wiolczi dreams that one day she will have a similar model in her living room).
Strolling through the museum, it’s impossible not to notice the exhibition consisting of original armbands of Home Army soldiers. They were simply pieces of fabric in white and red colors that the insurgents wore on their shoulder. Under the armbands are the names of their owners.
Of course, the Warsaw Rising Museum couldn’t miss the uniforms of the combatants. You will see here the clothes of both soldiers and nurses. Of course, it must be remembered that the insurgents didn’t have professional uniforms. They often fought in civilian clothes or clothes taken from German troops.
One of the most important elements of the insurgent’s equipment was binoculars. This device made it possible to spot the enemy from long distances. Leather shoulder bags were also characteristic of the fighters.
History buffs will have the opportunity to see the insurgents’ weapons. Among the various types of rifles, revolvers and pistols you will find the Polish VIS, known from one of the ‘forbidden war songs’ entitled ‘Pałacyk Michla’.
During the German occupation, there was the Polish Underground State headed by the government-in-exile in London. Such an extensive underground organization, the chart of which can be found in the photo below, was an absolute phenomenon on a global scale. No other occupied country created such structures.
Probably most of you know that the Warsaw insurgents moved around the city not only through the streets, but also through the sewers. Their network enabled the transport of materials, facilitated communication, and also helped in the evacuation of the population. On one of the walls you can see a photo report commemorating the famous ‘escape from the sewers’.
In one of the corridors of the Warsaw Rising Museum, you will come across a replica of a sewer (the so-called collector) with a characteristic warning “Be careful! Germans!”.
The insurgents passed information, items, weapons, ammunition or documents to each other using secret hiding places. Civilians helped the soldiers to store various things in their houses. These real war ‘treasures’ were hidden, for examples, under the floor of the apartments or in dark cellars.
In the museum, the most heartbreaking are: the Little Insurgent Room and private letters written by fighting people. Soldiers had no access to cell phones or e-mail so they sent handwritten messages on pieces of paper. Their content is really touching.
When visiting the Warsaw Rising Museum, you will certainly come across calendar pages hanging at the exhibitions. There are dates from August 1 to October 2 (i.e. from the outbreak of the uprising to its end). On each of the cards there is a detailed description of historical events and insurgent movements that took place that day. We didn’t manage to collect the entire collection, but we keep our fingers crossed for you.
The Warsaw Rising – was it worth it?
Before we move on to ticket prices, locations and tips, we will briefly answer the question that is asked in the Polish media every year. Was it worth organizing the Warsaw Uprising? Generally speaking, we see no point in thinking about it almost 80 years after its outbreak. Analyzing the causes, course and effects will certainly not change anything in this topic. It seems to us, however, that if tens of thousands of Poles in Warsaw decided that it was worth fighting, it means that it was worth it. People living in the city, which was occupied for 5 years, were certainly aware of the military advantage of the Germans and the potential consequences of an armed uprising. Still, they decided to fight. And we, now living in the most peaceful times in history, shouldn’t judge them. We can only admire their courage and determination.
Colonel Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki, the head of the 2nd Department of the Home Army Headquarters, once perfectly explained the need for the Varsovians to organize an uprising: ‘You had to experience 5 years of occupation in Warsaw to feel what the population and soldiers felt. You had to live day by day, hour by hour for five years in the shadow of the Pawiak prison, you had to see friends disappear one by one during those months, you had to feel your heart contraction in your chest every time, you had to hear the sounds of volleys every day so that you stopped hearing them, got used to them like church bells, had to silently assist on a street corner on a sad winter evening or a bright spring morning, at the execution of ten, twenty, fifty friends, brothers or strangers, randomly taken from crowd, huddled against the wall, with plastered lips and eyes expressing despair or pride. You had to experience all this to understand that Warsaw could not help but fight.’ The last sentence, written in Polish, can be found on the wall of the Warsaw Rising Museum and in the photo below.
Warsaw Rising Museum – tickets
On Mondays, entry to the Warsaw Rising Museum is free.
Ticket prices for the rest of the days:
- normal ticket – PLN 30.
- reduced ticket – PLN 25.
- group ticket – PLN 20.
- guided tour in Polish – PLN 150.
- guided tour in English / German / French / Russian / Italian / Spanish – PLN 200.
- museum lesson – PLN 250.
- audioguide (rental) – PLN 10.
- audioguide (for your own smartphone) – PLN 5.
Warsaw Rising Museum – opening hours
The Warsaw Rising Museum is open from 10am to 6pm on all days of the week except Tuesdays.
Warsaw Rising Museum – how to get?
The Warsaw Rising Museum is located at ul. Grzybowska 79 in Wola district. This location is well connected with other parts of the city.
- We encourage you to take eco-friendly walking and cycling trips – the museum is located less than 3 km from the center of Warsaw.
- Nearby there are bus stops with the name of the Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego.
- If you want to come by tram – the nearest stop is Okopowa.
- Those traveling by metro should get off at the Rondo Daszyńskiego station – in a few minutes’ walk you will get to the museum.
- Information for those arriving by car: the Warsaw Rising Museum doesn’t have its own car park and is located in a paid parking zone. On working days between 8am and 6pm, you must pay for parking at a parking meter or online. Paid private car parks can also be found in nearby buildings at Plac Europejski 1 (Warsaw Spire) and Jaktorowska 1 (entrance from Karolkowa Street).
Warsaw Rising Museum – tips
- The first plans to establish the Warsaw Rising Museum were made in the 1950s. Of course, for political reasons, this was out of the question. The communists effectively blocked all initiatives related to commemorating the heroism of Poles.
- In 2002, Lech Kaczyński, then mayor of Warsaw and later president of Poland, made a promise to open the Warsaw Rising Museum before the 60th anniversary of this armed uprising. He kept his promise – a modern facility in the heart of Wola district was opened on July 31, 2004.
- The museum has over 30,000 exhibits. Among them you will find weapons, uniforms, armbands of Home Army soldiers, everyday items, documents, authentic photos from the war period, handwritten letters, machines, and even well-preserved original fragments of old buildings.
- There is a cinema in the museum. You will watch a few-minute film ‘City of ruins’ (Polish: ‘Miasto ruin’) there. The screening is, of course, included in the museum admission price.
Warsaw Rising Museum – reviews
- Patrix – 10/10. A very touching and nostalgic museum. It is an extraordinary place dedicated to the heroes thanks to whom we live in free Poland today. Thank you.
- Wiolczix – 10/10. In my opinion, Poland is one of the countries with the most interesting history in the world. And the Warsaw Rising Museum allows you to get to know it in an extremely atmospheric, magical way. Crossing the threshold of the Warsaw Rising Museum, we were taken to a completely different world (fortunately completely unknown to us). Of course, because the exhibits and ‘attractions’ are very realistic, you will probably leave the museum in nostalgic and melancholic moods, but it is certainly worth visiting.
Warsaw Uprising Museum – frequently asked questions
When is entry to the Warsaw Uprising Museum free?
Free entry to the Warsaw Uprising Museum is valid on Mondays.
How much does an entrance ticket to the Warsaw Uprising Museum cost?
A regular ticket to the Warsaw Uprising Museum costs PLN 30, and a reduced ticket – PLN 25.
What collections can be seen at the Warsaw Uprising Museum?
The exhibition of the Warsaw Museum is divided into three parts. Each of them contains valuable collections worth seeing. The first covers the period from the outbreak of World War II until the end of Operation Storm. The second one presents the course of the Warsaw Uprising and life in occupied Warsaw. The third shows the end of the war and its consequences (destruction of the capital, expulsion of the population). The collections of the Warsaw Uprising Museum include: uniforms, armbands, equipment, weapons, maps, documents, protocols, photographs, letters, memories, printing machines, motorcycles, furniture, home appliances, toys, clothing, footwear.
How much time do you need to spend visiting the Warsaw Uprising Museum?
Visitors usually spend about 2 hours in the Warsaw Uprising Museum. If you want to thoroughly explore the entire exhibition, watch films and read descriptions of the exhibits, spend at least 3 hours on this attraction.
Warsaw Rising Museum – map
You will find the Warsaw Uprising Museum in the Wola district.
