"POLIN Museum: hours, free Thursdays and what to see at Warsaw's Museum of the History of Polish Jews"

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews stands on the edge of the former Warsaw Ghetto, facing the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, and tells 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland - from the medieval arrival of Jewish communities through the Golden Age, the Holocaust and the post-war decades.

The building and the exhibition

The undulating glass building, opened in 2013, is itself an award-winner: its architects received international honours for the design, and the Core Exhibition that followed in 2014 is organised as eight galleries spanning ten centuries. The hand-painted replica of the painted ceiling of the wooden synagogue of Gwoździec is the exhibition's literal and emotional centrepiece.

Opening hours and free entry

According to the museum's official site:

• Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday: 10:00-18:00
• Saturday: 10:00-20:00
• Tuesday: closed
• Thursday: free admission
• Last entry to the Core Exhibition: 2 hours before closing

Around the museum

The museum anchors the Muranów district, rebuilt on the rubble of the ghetto after the war. Combine a visit with the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes across the street, the Umschlagplatz memorial a short walk north, and the quiet courtyards of the post-war Muranów housing estate, which still sits on the raised ground of the destroyed district.