Saxon Palace
Polish cryptologists cracked the German Enigma cipher here in 1932 — the same building those same forces would destroy less than a decade later.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Warsaw offline.
The palace itself was obliterated by German forces in WWII, but its 1838 neoclassical colonnade — designed by Adam Idźkowski — survived and has housed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier since 1925. The empty footprint is now an active reconstruction site; Warsaw expects the full palace to reopen by 2030. Coming now means seeing the city literally rebuild its own history.
What to look for
- The surviving colonnade, the sole fragment of the original structure, designed by Adam Idźkowski in 1838
- The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier set within the colonnade arches — in place since 1925, predating the palace's destruction
- The reconstruction site around it, the result of a 2023 competition won by Warsaw firm WXCA
On Piłsudski Square in central Warsaw.
Saxon Palace is one of 36 sights worth the detour in Warsaw, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Warsaw pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Warsaw
- PGE Narodowy (Kazimierz Górski National Stadium)Poland's biggest football bowl hangs a retractable PVC roof from a central spire — when the mechanism works, it unfolds like a sail over 58,580 seats.
- Palace of Culture and ScienceStalin's skyscraper — Poles nicknamed it "elephant in lacy underwear" and never tore it down.
- Royal Castle in WarsawThe Nazis dynamited this building in 1944. Every room you walk through was rebuilt, stone by stone, between 1971 and 1984.
- Warsaw Old TownBombed flat in WWII and rebuilt from scratch — the world's first fully resurrected historic city core, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- National Museum in WarsawThe gallery that brought Nubian Christian art from a Sudanese cathedral to Warsaw.
- Wilanów PalaceBuilt for a warrior king while Poland still existed — and open as a museum since 1805.