MuseScope.
National Museum in Warsaw

National Museum in Warsaw

Warsaw, Poland · Website

Audio guide

The story

Most national museums grow from royal collections. Warsaw's, founded in 1862, has as its strangest treasure a set of wall paintings that were dug out of the Nubian desert barely in time. In the 1960s the Aswan High Dam was about to flood a long stretch of the Nile in Sudan, and a Polish team led by the archaeologist Kazimierz Michałowski excavated the buried cathedral of Faras. Under the sand they found scores of medieval Christian frescoes, and by agreement with Sudan a large share came to Warsaw.

The Faras Gallery now shows these serene, wide-eyed bishops and saints in a darkened hall, the only collection of its kind in Europe and a whole lost Christian kingdom brought back into the light.

The museum holds much more, from Polish painting to ancient art, including Jan Matejko's Battle of Grunwald, a vast and crowded canvas of a 1410 victory over the Teutonic Knights that the Germans put a bounty on during the Second World War. Staff hid it, and it survived rolled up in secret, one of many things in this building that came close to being lost.

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Collection

43 works
Portrait of a Venetian AdmiralPortrait of a Venetian AdmiralJacopo Tintoretto, 1570Reception of the Jews, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Reception of the Jews, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Jan Matejko, 1889A bust portrait of a woman in a flower wreathA bust portrait of a woman in a flower wreathDaniel Seghers, 1658Bearing of the CrossBearing of the CrossPeter Paul Rubens, 1610Christ preaching at CapernaumChrist preaching at CapernaumMaurycy Gottlieb, 1878Coronation of the First King, 1001 AD, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Coronation of the First King, 1001 AD, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Jan Matejko, 1889Death of Sigismund Augustus in Knyszyn in 1572Death of Sigismund Augustus in Knyszyn in 1572Jan Matejko, 1886French Dauphin presented with an orderFrench Dauphin presented with an orderJean-Antoine Watteau, 1710Landscape with robbers sharing lootLandscape with robbers sharing lootJan Brueghel the Elder, 1605Portrait of Helena Apolonia Potocka née MassalskaPortrait of Helena Apolonia Potocka née MassalskaÉlisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1808Portrait of Helena Matejko with a SparrowhawkPortrait of Helena Matejko with a SparrowhawkJan Matejko, 1883Portrait of Karol PodlewskiPortrait of Karol PodlewskiJan Matejko, 1882Portrait of Teodora Matejko (née Giebułtowska) in Her Wedding DressPortrait of Teodora Matejko (née Giebułtowska) in Her Wedding DressJan Matejko, 1879Power of Commonwealth at its Zenith, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Power of Commonwealth at its Zenith, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Jan Matejko, 1889Retaking of Rus. Wealth and Education, 1366 AD, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Retaking of Rus. Wealth and Education, 1366 AD, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”Jan Matejko, 1888Self-portraitSelf-portraitJan Matejko, 1892Sigismund Augustus and Barbara at the Radziwiłł court in VilniusSigismund Augustus and Barbara at the Radziwiłł court in VilniusJan Matejko, 1867Sigismund Augustus in the Vilnius garden, sketchSigismund Augustus in the Vilnius garden, sketchJan Matejko, 1865