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Warsaw’s Palace of Culture marks 70th birthday with day‑long festival

22.07.2025 10:15
The Palace of Culture and Science, once Europe’s second‑tallest building, turned 70 on Tuesday with concerts, exhibitions and free city‑skyline views set to draw visitors to central Warsaw.
Warsaws Palace of Culture and Science.
Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science.Photo: Fred Romero from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A family picnic will open the celebrations in Świętokrzyski Park at noon, offering treasure hunts, sports zones and contests staged with help from city districts and municipal firms.

Evening festivities on the neighboring Central Square are set to begin at 1700 local time, hosted by television presenter Maciej Orłoś.

Highlights include the photography show “The Palace and the City: Warsaw through the Lens of Zbyszko Siemaszko”, live sets by Brass Federacja, Beat Back, Menele, and Wszyscy Byliśmy Harcerzami, and the ceremonial cutting of a birthday cake.

After dark, revelers can don headphones for a “silent disco” beneath the floodlit tower, while the 30th‑floor terrace admitted guests free between 2000 and 2300.

Opened on 21 July 1955 as the “Joseph Palace of Culture and Science” and billed as a gift from the Soviet Union, the 46‑storey landmark originally stood 230.7 meters; a 1994 antenna extension raised it to 237 meters.

A millennium‑year clock, Europe’s second largest, crowns the spire.

The complex houses four theatres, two museums and a youth center cinema, and was listed as a heritage monument 18 years ago.

Its resident wildlife ranges from basement cats to peregrine falcons nesting near the pinnacle.

(jh)

Source: IAR, PAP