It is likely that in the late 16th century prince Janusz Ostrogski, the castellan of Cracow, erected a castle in the close neighbourhood of the walls of Warsaw, on a lofty escarpment by the Vistula river.
The castle was damaged during the so-called ?Swedish Deluge?. In 1680 the Ostrogski family estates were purchased by Jan Gliński, the Great Crown Deputy Chancellor. In 1681 he ordered the construction of a new vast residence on the site of the castle. He hired one of the greatest architects of the times - Tilman van Gameren. The works were interrupted soon, probably by the sudden death of the founder. By that time only a small part of the buttress walls had been built in the area of the present Tamka Street and by the Vistula river. Beside these walls a small two-storeyed structure (probably a warehouse) was built. In the early 18th century the unfinished palace foundation passed on to the Zamoyski family, who did not proceed with the former project but adapted the already existing building for the palace residence after a design by Józef Fontana. Afterwards the structure changed hands several times.
In 1820 the castle was sold by auction and purchased by Michał Gajewski. He heightened the building by adding one more storey and erected annexes to move the police station there. In 1858 the castle housed the Warsaw Music Institute conservatory.
Damaged during World War II, the castle was restored in the years 1949-1953 according to the 17th-century design and it became a seat of The Frederick Chopin Society.

Castle in Warszawa Ostrogskich

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The Royal Castle in Warsaw (Polish: Zamek Królewski w Warszawie) is a castle residency and was the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located in the Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town. The personal offices of the king and the administrative offices of the Royal Court of Poland were located there from the 16th century until the Partitions of Poland. In its long history the Royal Castle was repeatedly devastated and plundered by Swedish, Brandenburgian, German, and Russian armies.

The Constitution of 3 May 1791 was drafted here by the Four-Year Sejm. In the 19th century, after the collapse of the November Uprising, it was used as an administrative centre by the Tsar. Between 1926 and World War II the palace was the seat of the Polish president, Ignacy Mościcki. After the devastation done by Nazis during the Warsaw Uprising, the Castle was rebuilt and reconstructed. In 1980, the Royal Castle, together with the Old Town was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it is a historical and national monument, and is listed as a national museum.

At the end of 13th century, during Duke Conrad II of Mazovia's reign, the wooden-earthen gord called Smaller Manor (Latin: Curia Minor) was built. The following duke, Casimir I, decided to build here the first brick building at the burg-city's area, the Great Tower (Latin: Turris Magna). Between 1407 and 1410, Janusz I of Warsaw built a multi-story Gothic brick castle, called Bigger Manor (Latin: Curia Maior). From 1526 (when the last Masovian Dukes – Stanislaus I and Janusz III died) it became the Royal Residence.

Between 1548–1556 the castle was the residence of Queen Bona Sforza, wife of Sigismund I the Old. The following Polish monarch, Sigismund II Augustus, between 1568–1572, began the building's reconstruction project. For example, the Renaissance Royal House was added to the Bigger Manor as part of Giovanni's Battista di Quadro's project. Jakub Parr, an architect from Silesia, took part in this works as well.

In 1595, king Sigismund III Vasa made a decision to expand the castle to make it more suitable for public functions. Reconstruction in the Mannerist-early Baroque style was done between 1598–1619. The Castle was enlarged and given its present five-sided shape, with an imposing Mannerist-early Baroque elevation facing the town, and a high tower known as the Sigismund's Tower.

At the time of the Deluge between 1655–1656, the castle was plundered. In 1656, during the Swedish and German siege of Warsaw, a shot hit Sigismund's Tower spire, which caused it to break and collapse into the castle's courtyard.

When the Swedish wars, and the tremendous devastation caused thereby, came to an end, the Castle was rebuilt during the reigns of the Polish kings Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and John III Sobieski.

During the Great Northern War, the Castle suffered from Swedish occupation (they barricaded the castle and kept their horses in the opera hall. Germans shelled it from the Praga bank and Krakowskie Przedmieście. The castle was plundered by Swedish, German and Russian troops. Tsar Peter I of Russia took the paintings and other artifacts that were preserved at the castle to St. Petersburg.

In the first half of the 18th century, when first Augustus II the Strong and then Augustus III, of the Wettin family from Saxony, were elected to the throne of Poland, there were several attempts at to rebuild the castle, but these came to nothing. In 1737, under hire from the Polish Parliament, the Italian architect Gaetano Chiaveri designed a new wing facing the Vistula. It was built between 1741 and 1747, under the supervision of a Polonised Italian, Antonio Solari. This was an excellent design which harmonized extremely well with the older parts of the castle buildings.

King Stanisław II August by Marcello Bacciarelli
During the reign of Stanisław Augustus Poniatowski, the last Polish monarch, from 1764 to the third partition of Poland in 1795, the Royal Castle went through a period of greatness. The allocated money from the royal budget as well as the patronage which the king granted artists and the education and artistic taste of the ruler himself allowed for one of the most interesting reconstruction projects of the castle. Quite a few projects were carried out, which were designed by, among others, French architect Victor Louis, Johann Christian Kamsetzer or Efraim Szreger. The baroque-classical interior renovation was carried out on the basis of Jakub Fontana's and Domenico Merlini's projects. From 1773 the floor was thoroughly refurnished and the inside was decorated (D. Merlin and J.Ch. Kamsetzer's projects), for example new royal apartments, such as The Royal Chapel, The Knight Hall (otherwise known as The National Hall) and The Ballroom (Great Assembly Hall) were built. The successful changes made by the king that took place inside the Castle had a very characteristic Polish style and a high artistic level. A new Royal Library was built, running along the right wing of the Copper-Roof Palace (included in 1776 to the group of castle buildings) measuring 56 × 9 m.

On 3 May 1791, Sejm passed a constitution at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Castle was the residence of Frederick Augustus, Duke of Warsaw and King of Saxony. After the collapse of the Polish Insurrection of 1830–1831, the Castle was the seat of the Governors of the Polish Kingdom. Many reconstruction projects were done in the 19th century and were the work of Polish architects, such as Adam Idźkowski and Jakub Kubicki. Idźkowski's project of 1843 was a reconstruction of the Royal Castle using decorative forms borrowed from the gothic, Renaissance and Empire architecture. It planned the building of a third floor with seven different-sized towers, with attics decorated with eagles and antique statues. On the Zygmuntowska and Władysławowska towers, the metal roof domes were meant to be removed and replaced with terraces, surrounded by balustrade. On the Vistula side, on the Saxon elevation, Idźkowski planned to put up antique style reliefs, underneath the frieze of the 3 risalits. And later, on the façade of the 3rd floor Corinthian pilasters. Horizontal rustic belts and iron balconies were meant to decorate both of the Royal Castle's elevation as well as the Copper-Roof Palace. This project, characteristic for its brave architectural forms, was the answer to the new trend of using historical forms in architecture (as opposed to Kubicki's project 20 years prior, stating moderation of forms based on past works of royal architects carrying out projects on the Royal Castle).

At the time of the Polish national insurrection, in 1863, the square in front of the castle was the scene of patriotic demonstrations that ended in much bloodshed.

Royal Castle at the beginning of the 20th century
More restoration work began in 1915 and accelerated after the end of World War I, when Poland regained its independence in 1918 following 123 years of partitions. The Peace of Riga in 1921 let Poland retrieve some of the Castle collection from the USSR. The 1920s conservation and reconstruction works were supervised by architect and conservator Kazimierz Skórewicz. In 1928, he was replaced by another architect, Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz. Since 1926 the Royal Castle was the Polish president's residence.

In September 1939 the Castle burnt after the German bombing. During the subsequent occupation the Castle was plundered. German scholars, including Professor Dagobert Frey and Dr Joseph Mühlmann, took an active part in the work of destruction. The National Museum was allowed to keep only a few pieces of equipment to describe the losses and secretly document them with photographs. Art historian Stanislaw Lorentz was the one who supervised this process. On Hitler's orders, the Castle was due to be blown up at the beginning of 1940. The bomb unit drilled a number of holes to put dynamite in however, it was not (because of the protest of Italy) until after the Warsaw Uprising when this order was carried out.

In the years 1945-1970, the Communist authorities delayed making a decision on whether to rebuild the Castle. The decision to do so was taken in 1971. Funds for the rebuilding of the Castle, which took until 1980, were provided by the community.

In 1984 the reconstructed interiors were opened to the public.

Since 1995 work has been undertaken on the conservation of the Kubicki Arcades (finished in 2009 ) and the reconstruction of the gardens. These works are completed, the refurbishing of the Tin-Roofed Palace was finished in 2010, thus the rebuilding of the Royal Castle complex has been nearly finalized: the Castle Gardens remain in reconstruction phase, with a finished project and works to begin soon.

Royal Castle in Warsaw

Ujazdowski Castle, actually a palace, basically since its inception, he only residential functions. In the fourteenth century on the site of an earlier wooden and natural stronghold built a small castle to protect your headquarters from invasions Lithuanian. In 1548 years castle was extended only for residential purposes by Queen Bona. In the first half of the seventeenth century after the capital was moved to Warsaw Sigismund III Vasa expanded again in Ujazdow castle and made his summer residence. He then established the current body of the castle. 
During the Swedish wars, the castle was destroyed by invaders in 1655. After the withdrawal of the Swedish castle became the property of the Lubomirski, who hired to rebuild Tylman Gameren. Another reconstruction took place at the initiative of Stanisław August Poniatowski, but soon afterwards the king allocated castle barracks. Since 1809 years housed a military hospital, which operated until the outbreak of the Second World War. During the war the castle burned down, and after the war, in 1954, the ruins were demolished. In later rebuilt from the ground up to the castle is now Centre for Contemporary Art.