Palace of Culture and Science
Warsaw's 1955 Socialist Realist tower, with a public viewing terrace 114 metres above the city.
The Palace of Culture and Science was built between 1952 and 1955 as a gift from the Soviet Union to the Polish people, and remains the tallest building in Poland. Its designer, the Moscow architect Lev Rudnev, toured Polish cities before drawing up plans and grafted motifs from Kraków and Zamość onto the stepped Socialist Realist silhouette familiar from Moscow's post-war towers. The tower rises to 237 metres including the spire; a four-faced clock, added for the millennium, sits near the top.
The building holds more than 3,000 rooms and functions as a cultural complex rather than a single institution: theatres, a cinema, museums, concert and congress halls, offices and a swimming pool share the address. The public viewing terrace on the 30th floor, reached by lift in under twenty seconds, wraps around the tower at 114 metres and looks out over the reconstructed city centre. Long politically contentious, the Palace was entered on the register of historic monuments in 2007.
Highlights
- Open-air viewing terrace on the 30th floor, 114 metres up
- Tallest building in Poland at 237 metres including the spire
- Socialist Realist design with Polish Renaissance detailing
- Houses theatres, cinemas, museums and congress halls
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