Sejm and Senate Building Complex in Warsaw

The Sejm and Senate building complex at 4/6/8 Wiejska Street is the seat of the Polish parliament and also one of the most interesting lessons in 20th-century architecture in Warsaw. For more than four centuries the Polish Sejm had no permanent home; only since 10 February 1919 has it met here. The distinctive white rotunda of the Debating Chamber with its stone frieze can be seen from Wiejska Street, and you can go inside on a guided tour.

History: from a girls' school to a parliament

The first two-chamber Sejm was convened on 18 January 1493 in Piotrków, and later sessions met in Kraków, Radom, Lublin and Warsaw, among other places, and later also in Grodno. In 1918 it was decided that the parliament of reborn Poland would occupy the former Alexandrine-Marian Institute for the Education of Young Ladies. Its main building had been put up in 1851–1853 for the Nobility Institute to a design by Antoni Sulimowski and Bolesław Podczaszyński, and during the First World War it housed a German hospital for infectious diseases. The debating hall was set up in the former school dining room. Here on 10 February 1919 the Legislative Sejm convened; a few days later it passed the Small Constitution, and on 17 March 1921 the March Constitution.

In 1925 the government commissioned Kazimierz Skórewicz, curator of the Royal Castle, to extend the complex. An amphitheatre-shaped Debating Chamber was added on the south side and inaugurated on 27 March 1928; the April Constitution of 1935 was passed in it. On 2 September 1939 the last joint session of the Sejm and Senate of the Second Republic took place here. During the war part of the complex was destroyed, and in autumn 1939 the Germans executed Warsaw residents in the Sejm gardens. The burnt-out chamber was rebuilt in nine months, with the first post-war session held on 4 February 1947. The competition for the expansion was won by Bohdan Pniewski, and in 1948–1952 a group of low pavilions linked by passageways, terraces and courtyards was built.

What to see

• Skórewicz's Debating Chamber – oak seats and balustrade designed by Stefan Sienicki, reliefs by Aleksander Żurakowski. This is where the President of Poland takes the oath before the National Assembly.
• The frieze on the outer wall of the rotunda – 18 stone panels with reliefs by Jan Biernacki and Jan Szczepkowski, depicting crafts, ploughing, the press and education, among other themes.
• The main hall with a three-coloured marble floor and a clock in a ceramic surround by Władysław Zych from 1955.
• The Column Hall, covering 600 m², with marble rosettes and chandeliers designed by Tadeusz Gronowski; the Senate met here in 1989–1991.
• The Marshals' Corridor, with columns tapering towards the bottom that make the interior look larger.

Did you know

Only Polish materials were used to build the Debating Chamber – with a single exception: a piece of Belgian marble in the wall cladding. For decades Pniewski's complex had no fence, and until August 2016 passers-by could stroll through the grounds. Since 2019 the Sejm's interiors and collections can be viewed on Google Arts & Culture.

Tripto tips

• The Chancellery of the Sejm runs an online booking system for visits, including for individuals. When it was launched, tours took place on working days outside sitting days, always at 12:00, with a guide, and lasted about 40 minutes. You need to arrive by 11:45 at the Pass Office (building H) on Wiejska Street, with photo ID. Check the current rules and dates on sejm.gov.pl before your visit – tours may be cancelled if the sitting schedule changes.
• Without a booking you can still see the rotunda and its frieze from outside, from Wiejska Street. Half an hour is enough for a walk around the complex.