Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów

Exhibition rooms on the upper level of the palace – an exhibition written on the pages of history.

Galeria portretu staropolskiego na piętrze pałacu wilanowskiego, fot. Zbigniew Reszka.jpg

The exhibition on the upper level of the Wilanów palace recently turned 50 years old (it was opened in 1963). Modernisation and reconstruction of this space, carried out in the 1950s and 60s, was focused on the concept of presenting the history of portrait paintings from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

The space contained famous coffin portraits, magnificent Baroque portraiture of famous politicians and leaders, a rich gallery of images of figures associated with the Enlightenment and, finally, in the northern wing, 19th-century portraits – all of which from the Wilanów collection and other sources, primarily the National Museum in Warsaw.

A separate room was occupied by portraits of the Sobieski family; the Sieniawski and Czartoryski families – owners of the Wilanów residence in the 18th century, as well as people associated with the court of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August, also had their “corners”. The exhibition also features priceless kontusz belts and 19th-century patriotic memorabilia, testifying to the independence spirit being kept alive by successive generations.

In 2012, when it was clear that modernisation works and changes in the gallery space on the upper level of the palace were necessary, the museum published a book by Krystyna Gutowska-Dudek, Portret Polski. Tradycja i świadomość historyczna [A Portrait of Poland: Tradition and Historical Awareness], which today is a souvenir of the no longer extant exhibition (you can buy it in the e-shop).

Since November 2017, the upper level of the palace has been closed to the public. Construction works will begin there in October 2018, and the new exhibition will be available in a little over a year’s time.

logotypy POIiŚ3