Muzeum Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie

What to expect

Czapski Palace on Krakowskie Przedmiescie - one of the finest Baroque buildings on the Royal Route, yet most passers-by have no idea it is open to the public and free. Inside sits the museum of one of Europe’s oldest art academies (the Warsaw ASP has been running since 1816), holding a collection of 27,000 objects.

This is not a typical museum with a fixed permanent exhibition. Since 2021, the collection is presented through rotating thematic exhibitions in two halls - Salon Akademii and Gallery -1. Each visit shows something different. Painting, sculpture, prints, posters, ceramics, furniture, architectural designs - nearly every branch of art, with emphasis on 20th and 21st century Polish work.

Unique pieces found nowhere else: woodcuts by Wladyslaw Skoczylas (co-founder of the Polish graphic art school), designs by Oskar Hansen (creator of Open Form theory), works by Jerzy Soltan (collaborator of Le Corbusier). Plus thousands of diploma and competition pieces by ASP students from 1958-1985 - a documentation of the evolution of Polish art education that exists in no other institution.

The building itself is a story. Built around 1686 by Tylman van Gameren for Primate Radziejowski. Marshal Stanislaw Malachowski co-authored the Constitution of 3 May 1791 (Europe’s first codified constitution) while living here. Zygmunt Krasinski, one of Poland’s great Romantic poets, was born in the palace in 1812. Cyprian Norwid studied painting here (1837-1839). And in the left annex, first floor, Fryderyk Chopin lived with his family (1827-1830) - his last Warsaw address before the departure from which he never returned.

Tips

• Tuesday-Sunday 12:00-19:00. Monday closed.
• Free admission - one of very few free museums on the Royal Route.
• Gallery entrance from ul. Traugutta (side entrance), not from Krakowskie Przedmiescie.
• Building fully renovated in 2021 (26.5 million PLN EU project) - adapted for visitors with disabilities.
• Check the current exhibition at asp.waw.pl/muzeum/ - shows rotate regularly.

Getting there

Bus: Uniwersytet stop on Krakowskie Przedmiescie - lines 116, 175, 178, 180, 503.

Metro: Nowy Swiat-Uniwersytet (M2) - 5 minutes walk north.

Tram: Al. Jerozolimskie / Nowy Swiat - lines 7, 9, 22, 24, 25, then 10 minutes on foot.

Nearby museums

On the Royal Route: Zacheta - National Gallery of Art (3 pl. Malachowskiego, 200 m - contemporary art, 25 PLN), Museum of Caricature (11 ul. Kozia, 300 m - unique in Europe), University of Warsaw Museum (32 Krakowskie Przedmiescie, 400 m - Tyszkiewicz-Potocki Palace).