Image: Palace Museum in Wilanów, Warsaw
The Palace Museum in Wilanów in Warsaw will mark the 221st anniversary of its opening to the public on 6 August with a day of free admission and educational programming. The museum says the date recalls 5 August 1805, when Stanisław Kostka and Aleksandra Potocki invited the first visitors into the palace’s royal interiors and art gallery, turning Wilanów into what it describes as the first public museum of art and history on Polish lands.
The anniversary is framed around the Latin phrase ‘Cunctis patet ingressus’, displayed at the entrance to the gallery and translated by the museum as “free entry for all.” In its newsletter and event listing, the institution links the phrase directly to the founding gesture of 1805 and uses it as the title of the day’s programme, which is aimed at children, young people and adults. The museum describes the celebration as free of charge and open to all visitors.
According to the event page, the palace and gardens will be open free of charge on 6 August, and the day will also include free educational activities. Visitors will be able to picnic on blankets, including in the courtyard in front of the palace. The museum says the palace will be available to guests until 6 p.m. on that day, and that the ‘Apartments of Marshal Lubomirska’ will be exceptionally open to the public as well.
The schedule begins at noon with ‘Stanisław Kostka Potocki opens the museum – a walk with an educator’, a free guided walk that requires admission tickets. The museum’s description presents the programme as a chance to revisit the ideals associated with Potocki’s decision to open his collection to the public, and it identifies the meeting point as the cloakroom. Tickets for workshops and classes are to become available two weeks before the event, on 23 July at 9 a.m.
A second strand of the anniversary programme is ‘Master Copy’, a set of outdoor drawing classes scheduled several times during the day in the park. The museum says participants will copy drawings by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi and Botticelli, or, for those who prefer, work on studies of sculpture in the palace gardens. Each session lasts 50 minutes, is limited to 20 participants, and is open to children from age 7, teenagers and adults. The museum will provide drawing boards, paper, pencils, sepia and seating pads.
The day will also include ‘Ball in the Potocki Salons’, an evening dance event with instruction in selected period dances. Scheduled for 19:00–21:00 in the Orangerie, it is described as welcoming families with children, young people and adults. The museum says the evening will begin with a short lesson, followed by dancing to music inspired by early 19th-century salon tradition, and notes that costumes evoking the period are welcome but not required.
The 221st anniversary comes as Wilanów continues to present its long-running programmes across the palace, gardens and park. For 6 August, the museum combines free access with interpretive walks, open-air drawing and an evening ball, all anchored in the historical moment when the Potockis first opened the residence and its collection to the public.
