Palace of Culture and Science (Warsaw)

In recent years there have been blatant architectural attempts to cover up the Palace of Culture with various skyscrapers, the latest being the in your face shopping centre Zlote Tarasy. The Palace of Culture is not a particularly well liked building, mostly due to its status as a gift by Stalin from the USSR to Poland for war efforts and "embracing" communism. Supposedly Warsaw was offered a metro/subway or this building and took the building instead, thus the reason metro stations are still being built today. To the foreign eye, this imposing building is not particularly ugly, it's an impressive size and in reality probably one of the ...  Read the complete review

Following Poland's betrayal at Yalta by its so called Allies the aftermath of WW11 saw the country fall under the Soviet sphere of influence for a period that would last until 1989. For all the aggressive westernisation that has since followed, the marks of four decades of communism have yet to be completely erased from the face of Warsaw. Of these the most apparent is the Palace of Culture and Science, standing in the heart of the city. You couldn't miss this one if you tried. Soaring 231 metres high into the sky the building remains the tallest in Poland, in spite of recent competition from its highrise neighbours. Originally commissioned by Stalin as a ...  Read the complete review