How to visit and what to see in Uprising Museum (Warsaw): schedules, prices

Know the Museum of the Insurrection (Museum Powstanie Warszawskiego) is, without a doubt, a good way to start the Warsaw visit, just as happened during my most recent trip to poland.

This museum is the expression of one of the most outstanding milestones of the recent history of Poland,

Your visit will allow you to better understand the warsaw that you are going to know today, a city in which Second World War and the subsequent communist regime has left a deep mark.

What is the Warsaw Uprising

But what happened in what is known as the Warsaw Uprising?

Years ago I had the opportunity to see a shocking documentary on television that showed this historical event, also known as the Warsaw Uprising, one of the most notable of the final stage of the Second World War.

When the Russian troops approached the gates of warsaw, the Polish resistance army revolted against German troops with the intention of liberating the city before the arrival of the Soviets

This was a reaction of the Poles after what was known as Katyn massacre which happened a few months earlier, when the Soviet secret police murdered thousands of Polish officers, police and intellectuals during the period in which Russia invaded Poland after the start of the war. WWII.

La Warsaw Uprising It was a tough fight that took place for 62 days, from August 1 to October 1944, which provoked the indignation of Hitler, who gave the order to completely destroy the capital of Poland.

By then warsaw It had about 900 inhabitants, when at the beginning of the war the population reached 0 million people.

In the first phase, the rebels managed to gain positions from the German troops, but after waiting for help from the Soviet forces, Stalin He gave the order not to advance, so the Soviets finally allowed the Germans to massacre the rebels.

The harshness of the German reaction is helped by the fact that Warsaw was bombed about 120 times a day, so that during the uprising there were more than 200.0 dead, the vast majority among the civilian population, since the casualties among the soldiers were about 0.

Specifically, there was a neighborhood that was completely devastated in just three days, causing the death of 40.000 people, with the subsequent burning of mountains of corpses.

Finally, the Polish population who did not die in Warsaw were transferred by the Germans to concentration camps.

When the Germans abandoned Warsaw in January 1945, it is estimated that only about a thousand people remained in the remains of the city, almost completely destroyed.

What to see at the Warsaw Uprising Museum

Now you can learn more about this dramatic story in your visit of the museum of the Insurrection, which opened to the public in May 2006 in the facilities of an old factory that generated energy for trams.

It is a dark museum, in which you move through a labyrinth of rooms in which, through a sinister scenography supported by photos and videos, you feel transported to the time of the insurrection.

In the museum you will see numerous objects that were part of this uprising, such as weapons, uniforms, documents, and even some German army sidecars.

You will be able to move through a replica of the sewers through which the rebellious Poles moved, and you will even be able to see a replica of a German bomber.

To highlight the excellent 3d animation “The city in ruins” in which, from more than 2.000 aerial photographs taken by German troops after the uprising ended, you can see the incredible level of destruction that Warsaw was left with.

It is a six-minute long animated video that took more than two years to produce.

Warsaw Uprising Museum opening hours

The Visiting hours of the Warsaw Uprising Museum (79 Grzybowska Street) are, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 8 a.m. to 18 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 18 p.m., with final access half an hour before closing.

On Thursdays the museum is open from 8 a.m. to 20 p.m. and on Tuesdays it is closed for public visits.

Warsaw Uprising museum ticket prices

El price of admission (2019) is 25 PLN (5,90 euros) with free admission on Sundays.