After Poland regained independence in 1918, the Castle was put at the disposal of first the Chief of State Józef Piłsudski, and then the presidents of the Republic of Poland. The presidency of Gabriel Narutowicz was too short for him to settle down in the Castle, but Stanisław Wojciechowski, although he resided in the Belweder Palace, also carried out some of his political and representative activities in the historical seat of the kings. After 1926, President Ignacy Mościcki decided not only to hold office, but also to live in the castle apartments. For the next 13 years, diplomats and heads of state came to the Castle, meetings of politicians, official receptions and private audiences took place here. The castle once again became a symbol, a carrier of the idea of an independent Polish state and a showcase of its highest authorities
Rooms of the Presidents of the Second Polish Republic and the Authorities in Exile, photo: Royal Castle
The reconstruction of the Castle after the destruction of World War II, for political reasons, did not include the reconstruction of the presidential apartment, which was occupied by Ignacy Mościcki in the years 1926–1939. In the 1990s, a space dedicated to the Presidents of the Second Polish Republic and the Polish Authorities in Exile temporarily operated on the second floor of the Castle. Currently, both exhibitions are back in a new arrangement.
Office of President Ignacy Mościcki (1926–1939)
This interior symbolically recalls the interwar, presidential period in the history of the Castle. The heart of the head of state's office and apartment was the cabinet, where he received subsequent prime ministers and ministers, foreign guests and domestic delegations. Two offices worked for the president in the Castle: a civil and a military one.
Thanks to photographs from before 1939 and a preserved set of furniture "with dragons", it was possible to arrange the interior in an atmosphere reminiscent of the one in which the president held office. The exhibition is complemented by portraits of Mościcki's predecessors - presidents Gabriel Narutowicz and Stanisław Wojciechowski - and busts of: the head of state, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, and prime minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski.
In the passage to the second room there is a restored "Roman door" from around 1810, from a set that in the 1930s was the decoration of the reception rooms in this part of the Castle. Destroyed in 1939 when the building was bombed by the Germans, they remind us of a dramatic moment in our history.
Cabinet of Polish Authorities in Exile (1939–1991)
This room refers to the Seat of the Polish Authorities in Exile, which was located in London at 43 Eaton Place from 1940 and was commonly called "The Castle" among the Polish community. The facility ceased to function after the presidential elections in Poland in 1990, when the last president in exile of the Republic of Poland, Ryszard Kaczorowski, handed over the presidential insignia of the Second Polish Republic to President Lech Wałęsa, thus ending the activities of the London government.
The office presents, among others: souvenirs donated from the London headquarters: part of the presidential furniture with a set of portraits of six presidents: Władysław Raczkiewicz, August Zaleski, Stanisław Ostrowski, Edward Raczyński, Kazimierz Sabbat and Ryszard Kaczorowski, seal stamps of various state bodies from before 1939 and fragments of presidential tableware (glass, porcelain, silver) coming from the pre-war Castle. Three rugs made in 1943–1944 in Isfahan by Polish women who managed to escape from the USSR refer to various routes and fates of Polish wartime emigration.
source - Royal Castle
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