Polish Library Museums

On the Île Saint-Louis, the Polish Library in Paris brings together three small museums in the mansion at 6 quai d’Orléans. The Adam Mickiewicz Museum, founded in 1903 by the poet’s son, displays manuscripts, first editions, personal belongings and letters exchanged with Lamartine, Michelet and Sainte-Beuve. The Bolesław Biegas Museum shows sculptures and paintings by this Polish artist who settled in Paris, alongside works by Olga Boznańska. The Chopin Salon completes the visit to this address in the fourth arrondissement.

Highlights

The mansion on quai d’Orléans

Founded in 1838 by Polish émigrés, the library has occupied this mansion since 1853. Above the doorway, the inscription pairs the name of the Polish Historical and Literary Society with the library’s Polish name, Biblioteka Polska.

The Chopin Salon

Renovated in 2009 after a watercolour by Teofil Kwiatkowski, it recalls the composer’s last apartment on place Vendôme. Look at the 1845 Pleyel piano, the portraits, the music manuscripts and the death mask made by Auguste Clésinger.

Nearby

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Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation Behind the east end of Notre-Dame, at the tip of the Île de la Cité, the Memorial to... 3 min à pied

Arab World Institute: museum, panoramic terrace and mashrabiya screens On the banks of the Seine, opposite the Île Saint-Louis, the Arab World Institute... 3 min à pied

Shoah Memorial In the Marais, the Shoah Memorial combines a history museum, a place of remembrance and... 5 min à pied