Copper-Roof Palace

Palace in Poland

The Copper Roof Palace (Pałac Pod Blachą) is an 18th century palace in Warsaw, Poland. It takes its name (which is less precisely phrased in the original Polish) from the copper roof, a rarity in the first half of the 18th century. Since 1989 the palace has been a branch of the Royal Castle Museum. The palace is contiguous with Warsaw's Royal Castle, and down a slope from Castle Square and Warsaw's Old Town. Beneath the palace, a 17th century lodge still exists.

The original patrician house of Wawrzyniec Reffus was built in 1651–1656. After its 1657 destruction by the army of George II Rákóczi, it was completely remodeled in 1698–1701 In 1720 the palace was rebuilt with the addition of a second, northern wing; and the interior was decorated with rococo paintings. After 1777 the palace passed into the possession of Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, who hired the architect Domenico Merlini to redesign the rooms and to join the Royal Castle's library wing to it. The King then presented the redecorated palace to his nephew, Prince Józef Poniatowski. The Prince was a successful commander in the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising, and later one of Napoleon Bonaparte's marshals. Under the Prince's ownership, the palace became a center of Warsaw's high class social scene. When Warsaw became part of the Kingdom of Prussia after the Third Partition of Poland (1795), the palace became a Prussian Ministry of War headquarters. The Copper Roof Palace was deliberately burned in 1944 by the occupying Germans. In 1948–1949 it was reconstructed, based on 18th century paintings by Bernardo Bellotto. The palace is now a museum, part of Warsaw's Royal Castle, and hosts a historic library and a permanent exhibit of oriental rugs.