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The yellow route takes you to the most lavish section of the castle, the Royal Apartments of King Stanislaw August Poniatowski . Amid all the pomp and circumstance, it can be hard to remember that this is all a reconstruction of the eighteenth-century original - in this case, postwar architects had to rely on archival sources from Dresden to rebuild the rooms from scratch. Through two smaller rooms you come eventually to the magnificent Canaletto Room , with its views of Warsaw by Bernardo Bellotto, a nephew of the famous Canaletto - whose name he appropriated to make his pictures sell better. Marvellous in their detail, these cityscapes provided invaluable information for the architects involved in rebuilding the city after the war. Next door is the richly decorated Royal Chapel , designed and decorated by Domenico Merlini in the 1770s, where an urn contains the heart of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, swashbuckling leader of the 1794 insurrection, and hero of the American War of Independence. Like many other rooms on this floor, the Audience Chamber has a beautiful parquet floor as well as several original furnishings. The four pictures on display here are by Bacciarelli, court painter to Stanislaw August, and symbolize the cardinal virtues of Courage, Wisdom, Piety and Justice, while the room itself was again designed by Merlini, a good example of solid Polish Neoclassicism. The King's Bedroom , another lavishly decorated setup, is followed by the Study Room , decorated with paintings by the last Polish king's court artists, where Napoleon is supposed to have slept during his short stay - apparently he had Stanislaw's bed moved in here, not wishing to sleep in the bedroom occupied so recently by a deposed ruler. From here you proceed through to the reception rooms, where the sumptuous Marble Room is dominated by portraits of the 22 Polish monarchs, including a much-reproduced portrait of Stanislaw August in his coronation robes. Highlight of the parade of royal splendour is the Ballroom , the largest room in the castle, with its aptly titled ceiling allegory by Bacciarelli, The Dissolution of Chaos . Napoleon met the elite of Warsaw society here in 1806, the occasion on which he made his comments (legendary in Poland) about the beauty of Polish women - his mistress-to-be Countess Maria Walewska included, presumably.
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