Building and display
Old Medical Books Department Building
The Old Medical Book Department is housed in the historic surgical pavilion of the Ujazdowski Castle Hospital, built in an eclectic style between 1894 and 1896 as part of a Russian garrison hospital. After Poland regained independence and the Ujazdowski Hospital was taken over by the Polish Army, the building was renovated and ceremonially opened on 19 June 1924. From 1930 to 1939 it belonged to the School Hospital of the Sanitary Training Centre. It was burnt down in 1944. In 1983 it was handed over to the Central Medical Library to be used as the Medical Museum.
Together with the neighbouring building housing the Theatre Institute, it is the only remnant on the south side of the Lazienkowska Route of the vast complex, associated with military medicine from pre-partition times until the fall of the Warsaw Uprising. On the brick façade, one can find inscriptions scratched by Tsarist soldiers and by Poles who trained here in the interwar years. Also preserved inside is the staircase leading to the first floor in the central part with cast-iron balustrades.
The building houses an exhibition displaying historical medical instruments, pharmaceutical glassware, documents, books and works of art from various eras, memorabilia of prominent doctors and of the Sanitary Training Centre located on the hospital grounds until the Second World War. There is also a quilt that rarely appears in museum collections. Temporary exhibitions are also on display, as announced on the pages of the Main Medical Library. Individual or group tours of the building and exhibitions are possible by appointment.