Przebendowski Palace

The Przebendowski Palace in Warsaw is a historic building from the first half of the 18th century, originally built for Jan Jerzy Przebendowski. The symmetrically designed Late Baroque building is dominated by a three-story central projection that runs west to east and rises above a mansard roof. One architectural highlight is the semicircular shape of the projection on the front facade, which creates a large oval vestibule inside as well as an oval hall on the second floor. At the corners of the building stand four two-story ornamental towers, while the former courtyard buildings on the front side no longer exist because of the current layout of the streets.

Today the palace sits between the two carriageways of Solidarności Avenue and has housed the Warsaw Independence Museum since 1990. The building's history is marked by numerous changes of ownership, including stays by Spanish envoys, who hosted lavish balls here, as well as a period as a hotel with a wax museum. During the Warsaw Uprising the palace was heavily damaged, as it was a strategically important position in the fighting over the neighboring Bank Polski. After it was rebuilt in the late 1940s, it served for a time as the seat of the trade unions and housed the Lenin Museum before finally being given over to its present use as a museum.