Myślewicki Palace

Myślewicki Palace, Warsaw, Poland, is an 18th-century palace erected by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1774 and 1779 in an early neoclassical idiom with rococo influences. Commissioned by the reigning king, it formed part of the royal estate within what is now the Łazienki Royal Park and served as accommodation for members of the royal household and court. The building took its name from a nearby village called Myślewice, which no longer exists.

Construction and early use unfolded in the late 1770s, when the new house became a residence for royal courtiers. A substantial service wing for household staff was added in 1788. A member of the royal family later occupied the palace and his initials were placed above the entrance, marking a period when the building served both private and dynastic functions.

In the decades that followed the palace’s role shifted with the political life of the region. In November 1830 cadets from a military academy housed in the palace marched on the Belweder Palace; that attack is recorded as the opening action of the November Uprising, the 1830–1831 armed insurrection against Russian domination. During the 19th century and later under the Polish People’s Republic the palace was adapted to receive distinguished foreign guests; visitors recorded as having stayed or been received there include Napoleon I, Josip Broz Tito, Indira Gandhi, and Richard Nixon.

Between the two world wars the building provided living quarters for senior officials, including the commander of Warsaw Bolesław Wieniawa‑Długoszowski and later the Deputy Prime Minister Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski. The palace survived the Second World War with only minor damage and in the immediate postwar period portions of it were used to store furniture and architectural elements by the municipal reconstruction office. After the war it remained a government property and contained guest apartments run by the Office of the Council of Ministers, where visiting heads of state and other high-ranking visitors stayed.

From 1958 into 1970 confidential meetings between the ambassadors of the People’s Republic of China and the United States took place in the palace dining room; those talks contributed to the eventual establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, with the first meeting of the ambassadors dated 15 September 1958. In 1980 the palace was placed under the care of the Łazienki Royal Museum. A conservation phase completed in 2015 repaired the roof structure, renewed the metal roof covering, and restored the exterior face of the building. In 2019 a monument to Bolesław Wieniawa‑Długoszowski was unveiled in front of the palace.