Presidential Palace Warsaw

This is the classical latest version of a building that has stood on this site since it was begun by Hetman Stanislaw Koniecpolski in 1643. It was for 175 years a private palace of several aristocratic families.

In 1791 it hosted the authors of the May 3 Constitution of 1791. In 1818 the palace was the seat of the Russian Viceroy of the Polish Kingdom set up at the Congress of Vienna and given to the Czar.

In 1852 it was burned down in a fire and rebuilt in its classical form

On Poland's independence in 1918 the Palace was taken over for the Council of Ministers and became the Prime Minister's official seat. It was not damaged in 1939 and in the German Occupation was taken over as the Deutsches Haus and renovated. It survived the Warsaw Uprising and after the liberation was again the seat of the Polish Council of Ministers - this time under the Communist Government.

Since 1994 the Palace has been the seat of the President of the Republic of Poland.

In front and indistinct in this Christmas photo, is the equestrian statue of Prince Jozef Poniatowski modelled on that of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The Prince was a Polish patriot who fought for independent Poland before it was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria, and then for Napoleon when he established the Grand Duchy of Warsaw in 1809, becoming a Marshall of France before his heroic death at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.

The statue was sponsored by the Polish aristocracy in 1816 but not put in place because of the Russian occupation. In 1922 it was placed here, but then blown up by the Germans in1944. Fortunately the original moulds were available in Copenhagen and it was recast and placed here in honour in 1965.