Warsaw – Belweder Palace

Just south of Warsaw city center is the neoclassical palace, Belweder, dating back to the 1600s and where throughout history royalties and nobilities had lived. After the First World War, when Poland once again became an independent state under the leadership of the national hero, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski (1867-1935), he had his office in the palace. After Poland surrendered to the Germans in September 1939, Hitler made a brief visit to the palace to look at Pilsudski’s study. During the Second World War, the palace was rebuilt and was intended to become the Nazi general governor Hans Frank’s workplace/residence. Frank, however, never came to use the palace for this purpose because he set up his office in Wawel castle in Krakow. The palace miraculously escaped destruction during the Warsaw uprising in 1944.