The history of National Museum in Poznan had begun in 1958, when the Poznan Science Friends Society Museum of Polish and Slavic Antiquity in the Great Duchy of Poznan. For many years its collections had been growing and with new presenters the museum had been obtaining new names of course.

Then, in 1919, after Poland restored its independence, it was renamed again to Wielkopolskie Museum - the first open museum in Independent Poland on the territory of Prussian annexation. During the Inter-War Period the collection was growing again, as the German antiques were widened with the Mielzynscy Museum.

After the World War II, in 1945, Poznan's citizens (especially historians of art) began to reconstruct Wielkopolskie Museum collections. Five years later it gained the range of a National Museum. During the next 20 years, the museum's authorities had been opening new departments: Museum in Rogalin, Folk Culture and Art Division (Ethnographic Museum at present), Music Instruments Museum, Museum of Hisotry of Poznan, Museum in Goluchow, Military Museum of Wielkopolska, Museum of Artistic Handicraft (Museum of Usable Arts at present) and Museum of Adam Mickiewicz in Smielowo.

Nowadays the Museum has two more departments: Poster and Design Division (widened in 1999 by the 'Advertisement') and the Photography, Film and Video Division by the Gallery of Contemporary Art. Since 1990, there is also a Foundation of Raczynscy, which is an owner of great collection of paintings and many other elements of pre-war Raczynscy Family fortune. The Foundation indeed was set up by count Edward Raczynski in London on the 100th anniversary of his birth day.

The National Museum in Poznan is one of the greatest museums in Poland, as there is almost 300 000 elements there which are a great Polish heritage of nine centuries: from Middle Ages until present day.

The origins of the Royal Castle in Warsaw reach back to the middle ages. It was the ancient residence of the Mazovian and Polish Kings, as well as the seat of the Sejm during the Commonwealth. After Poland regained independence in 1918,it became the residence of the President of the Republic. Bombed during combat in September 1939, it was blown up by the Nazis in 1944.

The plan to rebuild the Castle failed to win approval from the Communist authorities for many years.The decision to reconstruct it finally was made in 1971, rewarding the attempts of the nation's intellectual elite to recreate this symbol of Polish statehood.

The reconstruction of the Castle was funded exclusively from contributions of individual Poles at home and abroad. The walls reconstructed in 1971-84 incorporated salvaged fragments of stone, stucco-work, murals, and wall paintings; the interior was furnished with original works of art that had been rescued before the Castle's destruction.

The Castle apartments were recreated on the basis of original source materials, according to their functions during the reign of King Stanisław August (1764 -1795). Their interiors are decorated with art works rescued from the old furnishings of the Royal Castle, including paintings by Bernard Belotto (known as Canaletto), Marcello Bacciarelli, and Jan Bogumił Plersch; sculptures by Andree Le Brun and Jakub Monaldi; bronzes by Phillipe Caffieri; and French furniture from the second half of the 18th century. A significant portion of the Castle furnishings were gifts, in some cases from heads of state and government, in addition to contemporary purchases.