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The blue route takes you through the Jagiellonian Rooms , overlooking the river from the northeast wing. Originally part of the residence of eighteenth-century monarch Augustus III, they are adorned with portraits of the Jagiellonian royal families and some outstanding Flemish tapestries, including the ominously titled Tragedy of the Jewish People . Next are the chambers where the Sejm (parliament) used to meet. Beyond the chancellery, which features more tapestries and portraits of the last dukes of Mazovia, comes the Old Chamber of Deputies , formerly the debating chamber. During parliamentary sessions, the deputies sat on benches on the left side of the chamber, with the Speaker in the centre of the room, while members of the public could stand and listen on the right-hand side. Democracy as practised here was something of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the founding decree of the Polish Commonwealth, hammered out here in 1573, demonstrated an exceptionally tolerant attitude to religious differences; on the other, it was also here that the principle of liberum veto - unanimity as a prerequisite for the passing of new laws - was established in 1652, often seen as the beginning of the end of effective government in Poland. Arguably the Sejm's finest hour, however, came precisely at the moment when political developments threatened it and the country's very existence: the famous Third of May Constitution , passed here in 1791, being one of the radical highpoints of European constitutional history. The painted pillars and heraldic emblems adorning the chamber are recently completed reconstructions of the original decorations by Baptista Quadro (of Poznan Town Hall fame) in the Italianate style typical of much Polish architecture of the period. The blue route culminates with the Matejko rooms in the north wing, crammed with paintings by the doyen of nineteenth-century Polish painters, Jan Matejko. A romantic visionary consumed by a sense of patriotic mission, Matejko specialized in grandiose history paintings (many of which are on show here) commemorating key moments in Poland's past. Rejtan shows a bare-breasted deputy blocking the path of a group of deputies preparing to accept the First Partition, imploring them to kill him rather than Poland, while The Third of May Constitution (see above) celebrates an enlightened moment in a similarly intense vein.
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