Królikarnia Palace (Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture)

On the edge of the Vistula escarpment in Mokotów stands a white domed palace modelled on Palladio's Villa Rotonda. Królikarnia is now the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture, a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw, and around it lies a park where bronze, granite and marble sculptures stand among the trees. The park is free and open every day from dawn to dusk.

History: from rabbits to sculpture

The name, which means roughly "rabbit warren", dates from the Saxon era. On this spur of the escarpment, then called Kaninchenberg (Rabbit Hill), there was an enclosure where rabbits were bred for the court of Augustus II. In the summer of 1732 a timber royal pavilion was put up here, from which the king watched large military manoeuvres on the Czerniaków meadows.

The present palace was built in 1782–1786 for Count Karol Thomatis, an Italian businessman close to King Stanisław August. It was designed by Domenico Merlini. In 1794 Tadeusz Kościuszko had his quarters here; later the palace belonged to the Radziwiłł, Pusłowski and Krasiński families. After a fire in 1879 the Pusłowskis rebuilt it in a way that is regarded as a pioneering achievement of Polish heritage conservation.

Królikarnia was destroyed in 1939 and again in 1944. The decision to rebuild it for Xawery Dunikowski's collection came in 1948, but the museum opened only on 26 January 1965, a year after the sculptor's death. Of the interiors, only the Round Hall under the dome was restored to its original appearance.

What to see

• Temporary exhibitions in the palace, devoted to historic and contemporary sculpture.
• The Sculpture Park on the slope of the escarpment, with works from the National Museum's collection. The first sculpture placed outdoors was Dunikowski's "Fatum. The Soul Leaving the Body", donated by his friend, the celebrated Paris hairdresser Antoine Cierplikowski.
• The Xawery Dunikowski collection of nearly 3,000 objects, from student terracottas of 1896 to sketches for a monument from 1963. Part of it is shown in the study storerooms, opened for guided tours.
• The terrace with a grotto on the river side and the pond at the foot of the escarpment.

Interesting facts

The kitchen building, set on the side of a ravine, was modelled on the Roman tomb of Caecilia Metella; in the 19th century it housed a library. Traces of the 1732 pavilion can still be read in the shape of the eastern slope: the palace terrace with its grotto is flanked by the remains of earthen ramps from that time.

Tripto tip

The museum is open Wednesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, on Fridays until 20:00; it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. A standard ticket costs PLN 20, reduced PLN 15, family PLN 36. Ticket desks close 30 minutes before the galleries. The easiest way to get there is by tram to the Królikarnia stop on Puławska Street or by metro to Wierzbno; the park entrance is at Puławska 113a. Allow about 1.5 hours for an exhibition and a walk in the park. On a warm day, take the path down the escarpment to the pond, for a view of the palace on top of the slope.