Football Championships in World Philately

From 16 July to 27 September 2026 the Museum of the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel showed postage stamps and other philatelic items on the history of the FIFA World Cup, all from the private collection of Krzysztof Bąkała. The museum did not say how many items were on display.

The museum’s announcement promised the great tournaments, legendary players and famous stadiums as seen on stamps from around the world. Pride of place went to issues marking the Polish national team’s greatest successes. The museum framed the show as proof that football has long brought people together across borders.

The opening took place on 16 July 2026 at 12:00 (noon). The show was first due to close on 13 September; the museum extended it by two weeks, to 27 September 2026.

Updates

• 2026-09-10 - the museum extended the show, citing strong interest, until 27 September 2026 (source: museum post).
• 2026-09-27 - last day of the exhibition. As of 28 September 2026 the museum had announced no further extension (source: Tenth Pavilion news page, in Polish).

After the show

The museum has not announced another venue for the collection, and its posts about the show mention no catalogue. If you missed it, there is currently nowhere else to see it.

No press reviews could be found, and the museum has published no visitor figures or awards. The only public measure of the response is the extension itself: on 10 September the museum added two weeks to the run, citing strong interest.

On now at the Tenth Pavilion and elsewhere in the Citadel:

• Two exhibitions on GROM, Poland’s special forces unit: „Jak GROM z jasnego nieba. Misje bojowe operatorów Jednostki Wojskowej GROM w latach 1994-2021” (a pun on the Polish idiom for “a bolt from the blue”, as grom means thunder; the show covers the unit’s combat missions from 1994 to 2021) and „Wspólna Służba. Ramię w ramię” (Shared Service. Shoulder to Shoulder). The museum opened both on 13 September 2026, the 80th anniversary of the birth of Brigadier General Sławomir Petelicki, who founded the unit, and gives no closing date (museum post, in Polish).
• Bogusław Lustyk: The Memory of the Uprising - paintings and spatial works on the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in the Brama Bielańska Gallery, housed in the Citadel’s historic gate; until 25 October 2026.

Museum profile: Museum of the Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel.