The Palace on the Water (Polish: Pałac na Wodzie), also called the Łazienki Palace (Pałac Łazienkowski) and the Palace on the Island (Pałac na Wyspie), was built in the 17th century by Tylman van Gameren for Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski. Between 1772 and 1793 it was remodeled by Domenico Merlini for King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who made it his residence.



The palace's furniture and paintings belong to the Classicist style. The building is dominated by an attika supported by columns, and featuring statues of mythological figures.



The palace stands on an artificial island in Łazienki Lake, and is connected to the rest of the park by two arcaded bridges. The long Łazienki Lake is divided by the palace into two parts, a smaller northern lake and a larger southern one.



The palace's ground floor includes the "Bacchus room," royal baths, a ballroom, a portrait gallery, the Solomon Room, a rotunda with figures of Polish kings, a lower picture gallery which contains minor works by Rubens and Rembrandt, and a chapel. Also on the ground floor is a dining room which hosted the famous "Thursday dinners" to which Stanisław August Poniatowski invited leading artists, writers and politicians.



The first floor contains the royal apartments, an upper picture gallery, a balcony room, the king's study, the royal bedchambers, a cloakroom, and an officer's room. The Palace on the Water was burned after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising by the Germans but German plans to blow up the palace were never carried out. It was rebuilt after World War II.



The Baths Park, or Royal Baths (Polish: Park Łazienkowski, or Łazienki Królewskie) is the largest park in Warsaw, Poland, occupying 76 hectares of the city center. The park-and-palace complex lies in Warsaw's Downtown (Śródmieście), on Ujazdów Avenue (Aleje Ujazdowskie) on the "Royal Route" linking the Royal Castle with Wilanów palace to the south. North of the Baths Park (Park Łazienkowski), on the other side of Agrykola Street, stands Ujazdów Castle.





Using the fact that last Sunday was sunny, though quite cold weather we decided to go to the Royal Baths.