Muzeum Warszawskiej Metropolii Prawosławnej

What to expect

Swietych Cyryla i Metodego 4, Praga Polnoc. The street was created in 1868 alongside the construction of the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene - Warsaw’s Orthodox cathedral standing next door at al. Solidarnosci 52. The museum is housed in the Centre of Orthodox Culture, in a building from 1927-1930 that spent half a century (1944-2004) occupied first by the German command, then the Security Office, then the police. It was returned to the Church only in 2004.

On the ground floor - a single hall with approximately 500 exhibits from a collection numbering over 700 objects. Orthodox sacred art: icons, crosses from various Christian traditions (the oldest dated to the 5th-6th century - among the oldest objects in any museum on this site), liturgical vestments, religious books, manuscripts. The collection has been systematically built since the 1980s. Director: Fr. Lukasz Koleda.

Context: the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church received autocephaly on 13 November 1924 from Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory VII. Pilsudski supported the Church’s independence from Moscow. Today the PAOC has approximately 504,000 faithful. The cathedral at Solidarnosci is one of only two freestanding Orthodox churches in Warsaw that survived the war without destruction.

On the building’s wall, a plaque commemorates 17 civilians murdered by the Germans on this street on 1 August 1944 - the first day of the Warsaw Uprising.

Tips

• Irregular hours: Mon 10-12, Tue 10-15, Wed 12-14, Thu 11-14, Fri 13-16. Saturday-Sunday closed.
• Visits outside hours possible by phone arrangement - 22 619 24 20 or muzeum@orthodox.pl.
• Free entry.
• Ground floor - potentially wheelchair accessible, but not confirmed. Call ahead.
• The museum has a branch: Museum of Icons (5 Lelechowska Street, Ochota) - in a former boiler house, with reproductions of Jerzy Nowosielski frescoes and Adam Stalony-Dobrzanski stained glass.
• The building also houses a chapel, a student dormitory, and the Brotherhood of the Holy Fire.

Getting there

Metro: Dworzec Wilenski (M2) - 100-200 m, the nearest station.

Tram: Stops at the Targowa / Solidarnosci intersection - lines on al. Solidarnosci.

Bus: Stops on both sides of ul. Targowa.

Rail: Warszawa Wilenska (suburban rail) - directly adjacent.

Nearby museums

Praga: Praga Museum (50/52 Targowa Street, 500 m south - Museum of Warsaw branch), Neon Museum (25 Minska Street, Soho Factory, 2 km south). Across the Vistula: Royal Castle (4 Plac Zamkowy, 1.5 km west via Slasko-Dabrowski Bridge).