Polish Army Museum in Warsaw finally got a new building this year. I mean it’s finally open. I really love the arrangement of the new exposition and I’d like to show it to you today.

It was my last August-September walk. I mean I went there twice! The first time it was a closing time way too soon so I have to go back there a week later to finish watching it. The most of photos from WWII period were taken during my second visit there.

So, enjoy this little tour that will show you 1000 years of Polish history again. We’ll start in 10th century.

Middle Ages – 17th Century

That’s one of the oldest things you could see there. The helmet with a spot to the feather and this kind of things… Or the reliquary related to the Battle of Grunwald… And a bombard. The older brother of future cannons.

Some things were reconstructed and some are real. The most interesting objects are related to one of most important battle of Middle Ages – The Battle of Grunwald.

If you decide to go there, don’t hesitate to read descriptions of objects. Some things belonged to kings or important historical heroes, and you can simply find out what you’re looking at. Honestly, these are treasures. So, that’s why I’ve spent there about 2-3 hours in total, and it was totally worth it.

And now 16th-17th century stuff.

What can you see there? The legendary husaria armor, the bigger armor ever, a royal sword – it belonged to Stefan Batory… And more.

You can also find there a similar chainmail to the one from Kraków (Royal Treasury on the Wawel hill) because they belonged to two brothers who were Polish kings in 17th century. Władysław IV Waza and Jan II Kazimierz Waza. Swedish-Polish kings.

18th-19th Century

You can see four cannons that are from four different times (and different wars). 17th-18th century. But the insurrection from 1794 when Tadeusz Kościuszko was a leader starts this part of the exposition. Here we also have things related to Józef Poniatowski (sable and gun).

Polish Legions created in Italy… That’s the army who was fighting for Napoleon Bonaparte. This little soldier was Zygmunt Krasiński – the future romantic poet. The bigger man (uniform) was his father.

Then there are things related to November Uprising (1830-1831) and the January Uprising (1863-1864).

Women were dressing like mourning when the last uprising failed…

World War I

The tragedy for Poles it was because it wasn’t our war. And we had to fight against each other…

The Interwar Period (1918-1939)

That’s the time when Poland was rebuilding.

The Battle of Warsaw 1920. Ignacy Skorupka – the priest who died during this battle and you can see things that were his there on the exposition. And you can see the blood…

But you can also see Józef Piłsudski’s uniform and more.

World War II

The first part of it is about September-October 1939 and the deference war. Then we can find out more about other armies, not only Polish. We can see things that belonged to soldiers-prisoners or a German airplane in pieces. But some weapons were also homemade during the war.

Cichociemny in the dictionary is explained as “a soldier trained in the West and parachuted over Nazi-occupied Poland to join the resistance forces”. You can see his uniform there as well!

Probably the most famous type of Russian tank… Can you guess the name? Yes, there it is too!

The Warsaw Uprising 1944

Things taken from Berlin when the war was ending. It was a very interesting part of the exposition… But yes, it was mainly all about this uprising… And I won’t say more… You need to go there to find out more!

So, that’s a wrap. Tomorrow I’m going back with more travel posts… This time it will be Zakopane that I visited few weeks ago.

Love, A.A.