Palace of the Commonwealth

What to expect

The Palace of the Commonwealth is Warsaw’s newest major museum opening - and arguably the best free ticket in the city, because there is no ticket at all. This baroque palace on Krasiński Square, built in 1688-1699 to a design by Tylman van Gameren, spent decades closed to the public: from the early 1960s the National Library of Poland kept its most valuable collections here, behind doors nobody could enter. That changed on 21 May 2024, when, after a general renovation, the palace opened to visitors for the first time in its history.

Inside is the permanent exhibition - the National Library’s treasury: the most precious objects of Polish and European written culture, spanning the 8th century to the present day. The highlights read like a syllabus of Polish civilization made physical: the medieval Holy Cross Sermons (the oldest prose text in Polish) and Florian Psalter, manuscript chronicles by Gallus Anonymus and Wincenty Kadłubek, the only surviving manuscript in Jan Kochanowski’s hand, autographs by Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Norwid, Herbert and Miłosz. Music too: manuscripts by Fryderyk Chopin and the score of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s Third Symphony. Among the European gems is the Sforziada, an illuminated Renaissance masterpiece.

You do not need Polish to enjoy this - the objects themselves carry the weight, and audio guides are handed out on site. One hour is enough for a full circuit, which makes the palace an easy add-on to any Old Town day. Few places in Europe show a national literary canon of this rank at zero cost.

Tips

• Free admission - no tickets, no booking required for individual visitors.
• Closed on Tuesdays. Open Wednesday through Monday, 11:00 AM-7:00 PM, last entry at 6:45 PM.
• Check the calendar before you go - a handful of individual dates in 2026 are excluded from visiting; the current list is on the official site’s opening-hours page.
• Pick up an audio guide at the Information Point by the entrance - individual visitors get them there.
• Groups touring with a National Library guide book through a form on the official site - demand is high and the system may combine groups, so plan ahead.
• The renovation removed architectural barriers, so the palace is accessible to visitors with disabilities.
• Contact: palac@bn.org.pl, tel. +48 22 608 22 44.

Getting there

The palace stands on Krasiński Square (plac Krasińskich), at the edge of the Krasiński Garden, a few minutes’ walk northwest of the Old Town.

Metro: Ratusz Arsenał station (line M1), about 5-7 minutes on foot along ul. Długa.

Tram: “Stare Miasto” stop on al. Solidarności - lines 4, 13, 23, 26 - about 5 minutes on foot.

On foot from the Old Town: from the Barbican it is a 5-minute walk down ul. Długa; combine the visit with a stroll through the New Town or the Krasiński Garden.

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