About the Museum

The Katyń Museum is a cultural institution of a martyrological character, as well as a research centre dedicated to documenting the Katyn massacre. This crime claimed the lives of nearly 22,000 prisoners of war and political detainees held in Soviet special camps and prisons from autumn 1939 to spring 1940, and murdered in April and May 1940.
As a public institution, the Museum serves society by preserving and promoting the memory of this crime. It speaks about the past while helping to shape the awareness of future generations.
The commemoration of the victims of the Katyn massacre reflects the long-standing efforts and wishes of the Katyn families. For decades, the families of those murdered safeguarded personal belongings and relics of their loved ones in their homes. Despite repression and restrictions, they preserved this memory privately, often in secrecy. Only after the political changes of 1989 were they able to speak openly about their loss and share their history with the wider public. Thanks to their commitment, the Katyn Museum in Warsaw was established in 1993.
The Museum collects and preserves artefacts related to the Katyn massacre, its victims, and those engaged in researching this history. Among its most valuable holdings are items recovered from mass graves in Katyn, Kharkiv, Mednoye, and Bykivnia, as well as personal mementoes donated by the victims’ families. The Museum also maintains an extensive photographic collection and a social archive containing family testimonies. These artefacts and funerary objects are presented in the permanent exhibition as well as in temporary displays.

 

Exhibition

The permanent exhibition of the Katyń Museum is housed within the interiors of the only surviving Caponier of the Warsaw Citadel. The display is arranged across two levels of this historic structure.
The upper level, entitled “Discovery”, introduces visitors to the history of the Katyn massacre and presents the chronology of events. The successive galleries explore the fate of Poles held in Soviet captivity, the discovery of the mass graves at Katyn, and the long and complex process of uncovering the truth, including attempts to conceal and falsify the historical record.
The lower level, “Testimony”, leads visitors from historical narrative into what may be considered the very heart of the Museum. Display cases present the most significant surviving personal belongings of the victims — thousands of artefacts recovered from mass graves in Katyn, Kharkiv, Mednoye and Bykivnia. These objects serve not only as deeply personal mementoes, but also as crucial material evidence of the Soviet crime of a genocidal character committed against citizens of the Second Polish Republic (1918-1939).

Architecture

The Katyn Museum is integrated into the southern section of the Warsaw Citadel. The historic fortifications enhance the sense of separation from the surrounding urban fabric, creating a distinct and contemplative environment.
The Museum was developed through a close collaboration between artists, historians, landscape architects and scriptwriters. As a result, the project forms a spatial narrative of the Katyn massacre, inviting each visitor to engage with it in an individual way. The boundaries between the citadel, the landscape and contemporary architectural elements are deliberately blurred. At times, the design intervenes in the original layout of the fortifications, reusing existing structures to guide visitors along a unique and carefully considered route.
Concrete, a key material used throughout the Museum, has been coloured to match the tone of the original brickwork. It also serves as a medium of memory: impressions of personal items belonging to the victims — such as the Polish eagle emblem, buttons, devotional pendants and identity tags — are embedded within its surface.
The project has received numerous awards and distinctions, including finalist status for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award; the 2015 Association of Polish Architects Award for the best public building; the Grand Prix and Main Prize in the Renovation/Restoration category at the Brick Award 2017; the Modernisation of the Year 2015 Award; a special prize from the Polish Cement Association; the Mayor of Warsaw’s Award in the Public Architecture category; and a nomination for the Polityka Architecture Award 2017.
Project team: Jan Belina-Brzozowski, Konrad Grabowiecki, Jerzy Kalina, Krzysztof Lang
Collaborators: Joanna Orłowska, Marek Sobol, Emilia Sobańska, Łukasz Węcławski, Agnieszka Grzywacz, Ewelina Wysokińska, Jacek Kretkiewicz, Tomasz Pluciński, Marek Rąbek, Marcin Szulc, Barbara Trojanowska, Jolanta Fabiszewska

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