The Royal Castle stands at the entrance to Warsaw's old town, where the Vistula bends beneath the escarpment. It became the residence of Polish monarchs and the seat of the Sejm when the capital moved from Krakow, and it was in its chambers that the Constitution of 3 May 1791 was adopted, the first written constitution in Europe. For that reason the building was never merely a palace but a symbol of Polish statehood, which is precisely why German forces reduced it to rubble in 1944. Reconstruction began only decades later, financed largely by public subscription and carried out from surviving drawings, paintings and salvaged fragments, many of them hidden by curators during the war. Interiors such as the Marble Room, the Great Assembly Hall and the Canaletto Room were restored with their paintings and furnishings returned. The castle forms part of the historic centre of Warsaw inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, a listing granted precisely for the exceptional nature of this reconstruction.
