Things to see in Warsaw

Varsovians are divided over this prime example of Socialist Realism. For decades it has been, at 231m (758ft), the tallest building in Poland and a reminder of Stalin's bravura - it was a gift from him to the city, built between 1952 and 1955. Detractors still reckon that the best views of the city are from the top of the structure since it is the only place in Warsaw where you cannot see the Palace of Culture and Science. The viewing platform on the 30th floor at 115m (377ft) does indeed give a terrific view over Warsaw. Besides offices, the building houses a concert hall, a multiscreen cinema, three theatres and two museums.

Housed in the Citadel, a solid 19th-century fortress northwest of the Old Town and overlooking the Vistula, this Warsaw museum was once used as a prison for political enemies of the Russian czars. The lucky inmates were shipped to labour camps in Siberia; the less fortunate were executed at Brama Straceń (Gate of Execution) on the prison grounds. The original cells are still standing and labelled with some of the prison's more famous residents, and paintings by Alexander Sochaczewski, a former inmate transported to Siberia with 20,000 other anti-Russian insurgents in the mid-19^th century, adorn the walls.

This eerie old prison symbolises the oppression that has dogged Warsaw over the last two centuries. Originally built in 1839 at the order of the czar, the prison counted among its inmates many victims of the Nazi reign of terror from 1939 to1944, when it served as the largest political prison in Poland. A third of the estimated 100,000 detainees never made it out alive. The Nazis tried to dynamite the evidence of their crimes as they fled but Pawiak and its exhibits stand as a testament to Warsaw's seemingly endless ability to suffer and survive.

This synagogue dating from 1902 is the only Jewish house of worship in Warsaw to have survived the war as it was used as a Nazi warehouse. Other places of interest that connect Warsaw to Jewish history include the Jewish Historical Institute, the Jewish Cemetery and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. In a shady park just opposite the museum is the rather stern Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, which is on Ulica Ludwika Zamenhofa, in the centre of the ghetto. It was erected on a heap of wartime ruins in 1948.

The National Museum's impressive collection of artworks and other items dates from ancient times to the present day and total some 800,000 pieces. Highlights include Jan Matejko's monumental Battle of Grunwald (1878), which celebrates the Polish victory over the Teutonic Knights in 1410, and the Faras Collection of early Christian and Egyptian art, which is unique in Europe. The collection of medieval art is also remarkable – if somewhat gruesome in parts. Unusually, there are also galleries of Polish and European decorative arts. Frequent temporary exhibitions bring prized international works (from Andy Warhol to Caravaggio) to Warsaw.