Muzeum Woli, Warsaw

Muzeum Woli is housed in the Sikorski Palace on Srebrna Street, a historic residence built in 1880 for sculptor Aleksander Sikorski. Take in the façade’s ornament and the compact scale of a place made for an artist rather than an institution. Sikorski also ran a stone-carving workshop beside his home.

In 1937 the property passed to the State Treasury, then underwent reconstruction in 1973 to a design by Zygmunt Łuszczyński. The palace has accommodated the museum ever since. Created in 1974 through the local Friends of Warsaw association, the museum records the history of Wola and forms part of the Museum of Warsaw.

Its permanent Gabinet Wolski display follows the district from medieval times to the present across fifteen themes, bringing together photographs, archival material, and collection objects. It gives Wola’s industrial past its due, while also recalling that this area played a part in the election of Polish kings.