Palace of Culture and Science
high-rise building and house of culture in Warsaw, Poland
The Palace of Culture and Science (Polish: Pałac Kultury i Nauki; PKiN) is a notable high-rise building in central Warsaw, Poland. With a total height of 237 metres (778 ft), it is the second tallest building in both Warsaw and Poland (after the Varso Tower), the eighth tallest building in the European Union and one of the tallest on the European continent. At the time of its completion in 1955, the Palace was the eighth tallest building in the world, retaining the position until 1961. Between 2000 and 2002, it was also the tallest clock tower in the world.
Inspired by Polish historical architecture and American art deco high-rise buildings, the Palace of Culture and Science was designed by Soviet architect Lev Rudnev in the spirit of the "Seven Sisters".
The Palace houses various public and cultural institutions, including theatres, museums, universities, a cinema, a concert hall, a public swimming pool, and the offices of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The building is decorated with sculptures representing the fields of culture and science. The main entrance features sculptures of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, by Ludwika Nitschowa, and the poet Adam Mickiewicz, by Stanisław Horno-Popławski. Since 2007, the PKiN has been listed in the Registry of Objects of Cultural Heritage.
Name
The building was originally known as the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science (Pałac Kultury i Nauki imienia Józefa Stalina).
“Palace of Culture and Science” enters the record as high-rise building and house of culture in Warsaw, Poland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Palace, Culture and Science can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Palace of Culture and Science” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Palace, Culture and Science provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q167566. VIAF identifies the subject as 143273800. The Library of Congress control number is n2013023177. Authority coordinates are 52.232, 21.006. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 1961, 2000 and 2002.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Palace of Culture and Science” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.