Polish Army Museum

Museum of the Polish Army

Main building of the museum
Established	22 April 1920
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Website	www.muzeumwp.pl

Museum of the Polish Army (

Opened in 1920, the museum expanded in 1993 with the Museum of Katyn and the Museum of Polish Military Technology opened in the 9th Czerniakowski Fort.^[2][3]

Collections

The forecourt of the museum houses several dozen armoured vehicles, artillery pieces and aircraft, an eclectic mix of Soviet, western and Polish equipment, mostly from the World War II era.

The indoor galleries concentrate on the military history of Poland since the 10th century, and are particularly strong on Poland's era of military greatness in the 17th century, through the decline into anarchy in the 18th century. Several rooms are devoted to Poland's part in the

Additionally there is a permanent exhibition of oriental arms and armour from the museum's own extensive collection, which includes many world-class items from Ottoman Turkey, the Crimean Tatar Khanate, Mongolia and Japan.^[4][6] The heavy weaponry is on display in the adjacent park and at the Fort Czerniakowski (Museum of Polish Military Technology, closed at present while it is being repaired). The park surrounding the museum is home to an open-air exhibition of heavy military equipment (tanks, artillery, aircraft and mine detection and diffusion). The Fort houses also the Museum of Katyń Victims, a subsidiary of the Polish Army Museum.^[1]

The museum was recently given the equipment from the soldiers lost in the presidential

• Polish Armed Forces in the Middle Ages
• Polish Army at the Time of Renaissance
• History of the Old Polish Military: 1576–1648
• Polish Army in the Second Half of the 17th Century
• Polish Army in Saxon Times
• Polish Army at the Time of the Enlightenment and the Kosciuszko Rising
• Polish Legions in Italy and the Army of the Dukedom of Warsaw
• The Army of the Kingdom of Poland and the November 1831 Rising
• The January 1863 Rising
• Polish Paramilitary Organisations of the Early 20th Century
• The Roads to Independence: 1914–45
• The Polish Army: 1921–39
• Poland's Defence War of 1939
• The Armed Struggle in the Occupied Country: 1939–47
• Polish Army in the East: 1943–45
• UN Peace Missions of the Polish Army.^[7]

The museum is run as a department of the Polish armed forces, an arrangement which brings advantages - such as limitless access to military surplus stock - but also disadvantages (not least the lack of a proper giftshop/bookshop, since, by law Polish military facilities cannot sell goods to the public on a commercial basis).

New Building

On December 15, 2008, the Museum of the Polish Army announced that it will sponsor an international competition to choose an architectural design for its new premises and surrounding area. The building will be built in the historic

General:

1. Małgorzata Omilanowska; Małgorzata Omilanowska; Jerzy Majewski (2000). Warszawa Przewodnik (in Polish). Warsaw: Wiedza i Życie.
   ISBN 83-7184-861-7
   .

• 
  Polish plate armour, circa 1514
• 
  Battle of Grochów, 1831
• 
  French World War I Mortier de 280 modele 1914 Schneider
• 
  PZL I-22 Iryda light attack jet trainer
• 
  Second World War

  .
• 
  Polish

  Sokół 600 motorcycle
• 
  D-44 Field gun

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Polish Army Museum.

• (in Polish) Muzeum Wojska Polskiego

52°13′55″N 21°1′33″E / 52.23194°N 21.02583°E / 52.23194; 21.02583