In this guide
💡 The Short Version: The National Museum in Warsaw (Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, MNW) is at Aleje Jerozolimskie 3 (mnw.art.pl). It is closed on Mondays, open 10:00 to 18:00 Tuesday to Sunday and until 20:00 on Fridays. The permanent galleries are free on Tuesdays (30 PLN otherwise), and all tickets are half price from 17:00 to 20:00 on Fridays. The highlights are the Faras Gallery of Nubian Christian wall paintings and Jan Matejko’s The Battle of Grunwald. Or book a tour: Warsaw: City Highlights Tour with Hotel Pickup and Drop-offad (from 220 PLN, 4.6 stars from 61 reviews) is a 3-hour guided tour of the main landmarks with hotel pickup, for the part of the day you spend outside the museum.
⚠️ Monday closure rule: Like the Royal Castle, the National Museum is closed on Mondays. The museum ticket office opens at 10:00 and closes 45 minutes before building closure (17:15 on standard days; 19:15 on Fridays). If advance online tickets show as sold out, in-person tickets are always available at the on-site cash desks on the day.
Admission prices, concessions and free Tuesdays
Buy tickets online (bilety.mnw.art.pl) or at the ticket counters in the entrance colonnade. If online tickets are sold out, the counters still sell them on the day. Prices are from mnw.art.pl.
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Permanent galleries (Galerie Stałe), regular | 30 PLN; free on Tuesdays |
| Permanent galleries, reduced | 15 PLN |
| Group of 10 or more | 15 PLN per person |
| Ages 8 to 26 | 1 PLN, at the ticket office only |
| Under 7 | Free |
| Combined ticket: main building, Królikarnia Sculpture Museum and Otwock Wielki Museum of Interiors | 50 PLN regular, 35 PLN reduced; valid for 30 days |
| Fridays 17:00 to 20:00 | Half price on all tickets except the 1 PLN ones |
| Temporary exhibition | Prices vary; the ticket also admits you to the permanent galleries |
The museum has free cloakrooms and luggage lockers, and folding stools to borrow in the galleries.
Jan Matejko’s epic Battle of Grunwald (Bitwa pod Grunwaldem, 1878). Photo: Jan Matejko, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
Sightseeing tours and city highlights
The National Museum holds over 830,000 works, from Egyptian antiquities and Byzantine frescoes to Dutch Golden Age masters and Polish historicism. Allow 3 hours for the galleries; a city tour puts the museum in the wider story of the city.
Warsaw: City Highlights Tour with Hotel Pickup and Drop-off
From 220 PLN · 4.6 stars from 61 reviews · 3 hours · hotel pickup and drop-off
Warsaw: City Highlights Tour with Hotel Pickup and Drop-offad: a guided excursion to the main landmarks, through the Old Town and the Praga district, past the Royal Castle and along the Royal Route.
Warsaw: City Sightseeing Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tour
From 158 PLN · 3.8 stars from 1,770 reviews · 1 to 3 days · hop on and off at the main sights
Warsaw: City Sightseeing Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tourad: a hop-on hop-off bus with stops at sights including the Royal Palace, Old Town and Market Square.
Warsaw: 3h Private City Highlights Tour by Luxury Car
From 1,400 PLN for a group of up to 2 · 5.0 stars from 4 reviews · 3 hours · private luxury car with chauffeur
Warsaw: 3h Private City Highlights Tour by Luxury Carad: a private tour by luxury car past the Old Town, Łazienki Park and the Palace of Culture and Science, with your chauffeur explaining the city’s history.
Museum ticket or city tour
| Option | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Permanent galleries ticket | All the permanent galleries for 30 PLN, or free on Tuesdays |
| Friday evening (17:00 to 20:00) | Half-price tickets |
| City highlights tour | The Old Town, Praga and the Royal Route, which the museum visit does not cover |
Nubian frescoes in the Faras Gallery. Photo: Bartosz Bajerski, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl.
The permanent galleries
1. The Faras Gallery (Galeria Faras)
A darkened gallery of early Christian Nubian painting. In 1961–1964, during UNESCO’s salvage campaign before the Aswan High Dam flooded Lake Nasser, a Polish team led by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski excavated the buried cathedral of Pachoras (Faras) on the border of Sudan and Egypt. They rescued 120 wall paintings dating from the 8th to 14th centuries. Sixty-seven of these tempera-on-mud-plaster murals are in Warsaw, including the portrait of Saint Anne, depictions of Christ and archangels, and portraits of Nubian bishops and monarchs.
2. Gallery of 19th-Century Art (Galeria Sztuki XIX Wieku)
Paintings from the 123 years when Poland was partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria:
- Jan Matejko, The Battle of Grunwald (Bitwa pod Grunwaldem, 1878): At 42 square metres, it shows the 1410 defeat of the Teutonic Knights by Polish-Lithuanian forces under King Władysław II Jagiełło.
- Józef Chełmoński, Indian Summer (Babie lato) and Four-in-Hand (Czwórka): Rural landscapes and a galloping team of horses.
- Stanisław Wyspiański: Art nouveau pastel portraits and stained-glass studies.
- Aleksander Gierymski, Jewess with Oranges (Żydówka z pomarańczami): A Polish realist painting, looted during the Second World War and recovered in Germany in 2011.
3. Gallery of Ancient Art (Galeria Sztuki Starożytnej)
About 1,800 objects from Mesopotamia and Pharaonic Egypt (painted wooden sarcophagi, mummies, ushabti figurines), plus Greek red-figure vases, Etruscan bronze pottery and Roman imperial marble busts.
4. Gallery of Medieval Art (Galeria Sztuki Średniowiecznej)
Gilded polyptych altarpieces, carved wooden Madonnas and liturgical vessels from churches in Silesia, Pomerania and Lesser Poland.
5. Gallery of Polish Design (Galeria Wzornictwa Polskiego)
Polish applied arts of the 20th and 21st centuries: mid-century furniture, ceramics from the Ćmielów porcelain factory and Polish Poster School graphics.
The 19th-Century Art Gallery displaying masterworks by Polish painters. Photo: Adrian Grycuk, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl.
Opening hours and visiting timetable
| Day of the Week | Gallery Hours | Ticket Office Hours | Notes & Admission Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | CLOSED ALL DAY | — | Regular weekly closing |
| Tuesday | 10:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:15 | Permanent galleries free |
| Wednesday | 10:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:15 | Quiet hours 16:00–18:00 (2nd & 3rd Wed) |
| Thursday | 10:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:15 | Standard hours |
| Friday | 10:00 – 20:00 | 10:00 – 19:15 | Late opening; half-price tickets 17:00 – 20:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:15 | Standard hours |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:15 | Standard hours |
Holiday closures: MNW is closed on 1 November, 24–25 December, 31 December, 1 January, and Easter Sunday.
Getting there
The National Museum is located at Aleje Jerozolimskie 3 in central Śródmieście, 1.2 km east of Warszawa Centralna.
- Trams: Routes 7, 9, 22, 24, and 25 stop directly outside at Muzeum Narodowe on Aleje Jerozolimskie.
- Buses: Lines 111, 116, 128, 175, 180, and 503 stop at Foksal or Plac Trzech Krzyży, less than 3 minutes’ walk away.
- Train: Warszawa Powiśle suburban railway station (SKM and KM commuter trains) is situated 200 metres east down the slope.
- Fares: Covered by standard Zone 1 public transit tickets; see our guide to public transport in Warsaw.
What to see next
- Palace of Culture and Science: The 30th-floor viewing terrace is a 15-minute walk west down Aleje Jerozolimskie.
- Royal Castle in Warsaw: Free on Wednesdays; Rembrandt paintings and Bellotto cityscapes.
- Łazienki Park and the Palace on the Isle: King Stanisław August’s summer estate, 10 minutes south on bus 116 or 180.
- Free things to do in Warsaw: Free museum days across the city.
- Warsaw in 1 or 2 days: City itineraries that include the National Museum.
- Warsaw travel guide: Sights, transport, food and hotels.
Common questions
When is the National Museum in Warsaw free?
On Tuesdays admission to the permanent galleries is free. There is no ticket to collect or reserve; walk straight in (mnw.art.pl).
What days is the National Museum closed?
Mondays, all year. It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, and until 20:00 on Fridays.
What is the Faras Gallery?
The Professor Kazimierz Michałowski Faras Gallery shows medieval Christian wall paintings from Nubia (present-day Sudan). The 67 paintings date from the 8th to 14th centuries and were rescued by Polish archaeologists before the flooding of Lake Nasser.
Where is Jan Matejko's Battle of Grunwald displayed?
Matejko's 1878 painting *Bitwa pod Grunwaldem* (4.26 × 9.87 metres) hangs in Hall 108 of the 19th-Century Art Gallery on the first floor.
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