Historyczne zbiory metrologiczne Głównego Urzędu Miar

What to expect

The Central Office of Measures (GUM) - an institution whose founding decree was signed by Pilsudski on 8 February 1919, as one of the very first legal acts of reborn Poland. Its task: unify three measurement systems inherited from the partitioning powers - Prussian, Austrian and Russian. In the corridors and halls of the same building on Elektoralna street where GUM has resided since 1922, some 3,500 historical measuring instruments and archival documents are on display, with roughly 1,000 items in permanent exhibition.

The oldest exhibit: a four-pound Lithuanian weight from 1677, bearing the Kosciesza coat of arms. In the display cases - brass Warsaw half-measures from 1794 and 1797, 18th-century beam balances, Krakow ells, a pocket sundial by astronomer Jan Baranowski, and some of the world’s earliest Aron electric energy meters. Unique on a European scale: horse-drawn taxicab meters from the turn of the 20th century. At the other end of the collection - caesium and rubidium atomic clocks, the most precise time measurement devices in Poland.

The building itself is the work of Antonio Corazzi (1825-1830) - the same architect who designed the Grand Theatre and Staszic Palace. A registered monument. The corner rotunda with its dome on a drum, adorned with four angel sculptures. Originally built for the Bank of Poland, seriously damaged in September 1939, destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, reconstructed by Piotr Bieganski in 1945-1951.

Tips

• This is not a conventional museum - it is a working government office with a collection in the corridors. Regular opening hours do not exist.
• Group visits (minimum 3 people) by appointment: call (22) 581 90 71.
• Night of Museums (May) - the best opportunity for individual visits. In 2025, visitors could tour GUM laboratories: time and frequency, length, temperature, flow. Free admission.
• World Metrology Day (20 May) - GUM hosts seminars and demonstrations.
• GUM office hours: Monday-Friday 8:00-16:00 (these are office hours, not tourist hours).

Getting there

Metro: Ratusz Arsenal (M1) - 8 minutes walk south.

Tram: Plac Bankowy stop (trams 4, 13, 20, 26, 35) - 3 minutes walk.

Bus: Plac Bankowy stop (lines 107, 171, 178, 512, 518) - 3 minutes.

Nearby museums

Independence Museum (62 al. Solidarnosci, 400 m) - Polish independence history in the former Warsaw Town Hall. Archaeological Museum (52 ul. Dluga, 500 m) - from prehistory to the Middle Ages, in an 18th-century arsenal.