The Heritage Interpretation Centre is a place of meetings and talks about Warsaw, especially about the reconstruction of the Old Town, which is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. However, our activity is not focused only on the issues of destruction and post-war reconstruction. We support and organize a number of events related to world heritage and its mission. We create educational activities related to world heritage, prepared using methods of interpretation of local and world heritage. Lectures, book promotions as well as classes and workshops for children and youth also take place here.

Name
An interpretation centre is an institution whose goal is the dissemination of knowledge of natural or cultural heritage. To aid and stimulate the discovery process and the visitor’s intellectual and emotional connection to heritage, the main presentation strategy tends to be user-friendly and interactive, and often use scenographic exhibitions and multimedia programs.

Place
The concept of establishing the Heritage Interpretation Center was born in 2005, as one of the elements of a large project Renovation and adaptation for cultural purposes of Warsaw’s Old Town cellars in the area of the ​​UNESCO World Heritage site.

Before the start of the renovation and adaptation works, there was an archaeological study lead by the archeologist Maciej Czarnecki. Its effect was the unveiling of the fourteenth-century foundations of the city walls, absorbed around the sixteenth century by the expanding urban buildings. After the works were completed, it was decided to leave the walls exposed so that they could be viewed by visitors.

While modernizing the rooms, the architects made sure that elements of historical architecture were visible in the renovated interiors. The author of the architectural design and composition of the permanent exhibition of the Heritage Interpretation Center is the Warsaw architectural studio Archistudio Anna and Wojciech Kleinrok. The center was opened to visitors on 24 January 2013. The huge and complex investment was possible thanks to cooperation with the Norwegian city of Bergen and co-financing of the project from The EEA Grants and Norway Grants.