If you’re planning a trip to Poland this summer, it’s likely that you’ll spend some time in the country’s capital of Warsaw - and for good reason. Warsaw is one of Eastern Europe’s most stunning cities, boasting a UNESCO World Heritage protected Old Town alongside the lavish Palace of Culture and Science, and a variety of monuments to Poland’s turbulent past. However, one attraction stands out most in Warsaw - the grand Royal Castle.

Dating back to the thirteenth century, Warsaw’s Royal Castle was once the official residence of Poland’s monarch. It was home to the personal offices of the King, as well as the Royal Court of Poland until the Partitions of Poland, which ended the sovereign Polish-Lithuanian

Commonwealth in the eighteenth century. During World War II, the Royal Castle was partially destroyed by German bombers in the Invasion of Poland and then subsequently suffered further damage as a result of German bombardment and heavy artillery fire during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. In September 1944, on Hitler’s orders the Castle remnants from the bombing were blown up.

Reconstructions, however, began to take place in the early 1970s, and in July 1974 the clock on the tower of the Royal Castle began working again - on the exact same hour at which it had been stopped during the Luftwaffe bombardment. Today, Royal Castle is primarily used for ceremonial purposes and as a branch of Poland’s National Museum. What’s

more, many of the castle’s original works of art are still available to view. This is because, during the Siege of Warsaw in 1939, much of Royal Castle’s art collection was moved to different basements around Warsaw, and thus hidden from German authorities.

Visitors to Royal Castle will find that the castle interior consists of many different rooms, all which have been painstakingly restored with as much original detail as possible left in place. The Jagiellonian rooms - once home to Augustus III - now house a number of portraits of the Jagiello family, a Lithuanian dynasty that reigned over parts of Central Europe from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century.

Royal Castle’s Houses of Parliament are the site of

the root of Polish democracy, while the Royal Apartments were once the residence of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last King and Grand Duke of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Royal Apartments in Royal Castle also consist of the Caneletto Room, in which visitors will find many paintings of Warsaw to view. Interestingly, however, these paintings were not painted by Canaletto but by his student and nephew, Bernardo Bellotto, who signed his name Bernardo Canaletto.

Royal Castle is located at the Plac Zamkowy, on the cusp of Warsaw’s celebrated Old Town, so travellers to Warsaw will find it easy to get their bearings from this landmark. Also of interest is the Copper Roof Palace - or Palac pod Blacha in Polish -

which was built in 1720 and is situated right next to Royal Castle. If you’re hoping to take in Warsaw’s breathtaking attractions, you’ll be able to find frequent [http://www.britishairways.com/findaflight/europe/gb/flights/from/london-heathrow-to-warsaw.html]flights to Warsaw from London Heathrow - so you can be sure of an easy way to travel to this spectacular city!

Adam Singleton is an online, freelance journalist and keen amateur photographer. His portfolio - [http://www.flickr.com/people/capquest_photography/]Capquest Photography - is available online.