The former seat of Masovian dukes and Polish-Lithuanian monarchs has remained a symbol of Polish statehood for centuries. It was the venue of parliamentary sessions and witnessed triumphs (such as the homage paid to King Sigismund III by the Russian Tsar taken prisoner), but also shameful events, such as the consent of corrupt and intimidated…
A movie theatre, concert hall, conference rooms – all this in the vicinity of exhibitions presenting exhibits that are unique to Poland and sometimes even globally. The Polish History Museum boasts one of the largest and most modern museum buildings in Europe. Robert Kostro, its director, talks about the museum’s unusual approach to telling history…
Leopold Tyrmand was one of the most interesting figures of post-war Poland’s artistic milieu. Despite the oppression of the communist regime, he had his own way of opposing the system. by Piotr Bejrowski Tyrmand’s biographers aptly point out that he opposed communism not only ideologically, but also aesthetically. He wanted to maintain the continuity of…
‘Let it be “national” but not “provincial”,’ – this is what Karol Szymanowski wrote in 1920 (‘Uwagi w sprawie współczesnej opinii muzycznej w Polsce’, trans. ‘Remarks on contemporary musical opinion in Poland’), referring to the desired shape of new Polish music and weaving it into the space of widely understood universal humanism. During the inter-war…
