Warsaw 2009: the Royal Castle

Warsaw's Royal Castle is of course no longer in use, since Poland is a republic. The Castle is a museum, open to the public and beautifully restored. It's been damaged a number of times over the centuries of its existence - in 1944 it was almost completely destroyed by the Nazis who were in power at the time. They did it deliberately. :-( But as part of the reconstruction of the Old Town after the war, the Castle was also rebuilt. Now you can't see that it was torn down to the ground floor just some decades ago. It's a beautiful place ... extremely impressive in many of its reception rooms and decoration. Gorgeous and sumptuous. Take a look. :-)

A view of the facade ...

... which is also quite impressively decorated.

The tower in the center of the facade.

The interior courtyard.

One of several throne rooms.

Beautifully decorated ceilings and other interiors.

One of the most impressive things were the gorgeous inlaid wooden floors. So many beautiful patterns.

One room is hung with old tapestries that have been saved from the various fires and destructions ...

... and one of them has a turtle in it. Aww. I bought a bookmark version of it. Of course. :-)

You can see more pictures from the Royal Castle and the Old Town generally here ... and you can read more about the Castle here. :-)