Medal - Warsaw Royal Castle

The Royal Castle in Warsaw is a castle residency that formerly served throughout the centuries as the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located in the Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town. Burned and looted by the Nazi Germans following the Invasion of Poland in 1939 and almost completely destroyed in 1944 after the failed Warsaw Uprising, the Castle was completely rebuilt and reconstructed; in 1965 the surviving fragments of the castle and the Royal Library, the adjacent Copper-Roof Palace and the Kubicki Arcades were registered as historical monuments by the government. Reconstruction of the castle carried out in 1971–1984 was led by the Civic Committee, responsible for the reconstruction of Warsaw. It was afforded by mainly US donations. In 1980, the Royal Castle, together with the Old Town was registered as a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it is a historical and national monument, and is listed as a national museum visited by over 500,000 people every year.