Royal Castle in Warsaw (Poland)

At the end of the 13th century, during the reign of the duke of Mazovia Konrad II, a wooden-earth castle called the Minor Curia (Latin Curia Minor) was built. Another prince, Kazimierz I, decided to build in 1350 the first brick building in the castle, the Great Tower (Latin Turris Magna, today is the Grodzka Tower). Between 1407 and 1410, Janusz I Elder built a Gothic brick castle, called the Bigger (Latin Curia Maior). The character of the new headquarters and its size (47.5 m at 14.5 m) decided to change the status of the object, which since 1414 was already functioning as Prince's Manor. From 1526 (when the last Mazovian princes, Stanislaw I and Janusz III died), the castle became a royal residence, and after the transfer of the capital to Warsaw, also the seat of the Sejm and the Senate. After the Sejm of Both Nations of 1569, the castle expanded to the new Royal Court of Giovanni Baptiste di Quadro. October 29, 1611 in the Senatorial Chamber of the castle, captured by the hetman Stanislaus Zolkiewski, Russian Tsar Vasyl IV Shujski paid homage to the Polish king Zygmunt III Waza. In 1622 Zygmunt III Waza greatly enlarged the castle, closing the building and creating a modern five-sided courtyard.

At the castle on May 3, 1791, the Four-Year Sejm adopted a constitution. During the November Uprising, January 25, 1831, the sitting of the Sejm castle demolished Russia's Emperor Nicholas I as King of Poland. In revenge for the deed the Russians converted two palace chambers: the Marble Chamber and the Senate Chamber. Between 1926-1939 was the seat of the President of the Second Polish Republic Ignacy Mościcki.

After the outbreak of war, rescuing all moving goods, which were transferred to the National Museum. During the rescue operation the then custodian of the castle collections, Kazimierz Brokl, was killed. The castle was severely damaged during the artillery fire of September 17, 1939 - roofs and helmets were burned down, and the roof of the Great Hall was also destroyed. The attack took place around 11:15 and at this hour the clock on the burning Sigismund Tower stopped. This time became symbolic for the Castle - at 11:15 clock was stopped on the statue of Chronos in the Knight's Hall, also at this time every day from the Sigismund Tower is played a Warsaw bugle.

After the German invasion of Warsaw, a decision was made to blow up the castle, where the Volkshalle was to be built under the Pabst Plan. At the turn of 1939 and 1940, 10 thousand holes were drilled in the castle for dynamite. The castle was not blown up, however, because the shock wave could have wiped down the Kierbedz Bridge, which was necessary for the German troops to move east. The castle was blown up after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

At present, fewer and fewer people are realizing that the castle we are seeing today is just a building rebuilt after World War II. The reconstruction of the Royal Castle, or rather its construction from the ground up, began in 1971, when Edward Gierek came to power, and was completed in 1981, when he lost that power. After World War II the old castle was left with only about 2% of the material used in its reconstruction comes from the old castle. In 1945 pictures show only the small parts of the walls that are facing the sky.

The Royal Castle is one of the most famous buildings in the world, not because it looks particularly impressive, either because it is more than 700 years old and it was once a royal residence, or because Shakespeare used the story of the winter story in history. Castle really. The uniqueness of the Castle consists in the fact that for 37 years the Warsaw Royal Castle did not exist, yet it was reborn as a Phoenix from the ashes. It was destroyed as a symbol of Polish statehood and as a symbol of this statehood was rebuilt.