The Warsaw Palace of Culture
(Palac Kultury) was a controversial
gift from the Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin to the people of
Warsaw in
Poland, which, at the time (the 1950s), was a satellite state of the
USSR. It is a huge concrete neo-gothic block adjacent to [Warsaw Central Station]
?, which has a hideous beauty of its own, and this ambivalence is reflected in the attitude of the native Varsovians to the building which is the subject of a love-hate relationship.
It was called 'Stalin's Palace' (Palac imienia Stalina) untill it was renamed in the late 1950s. It currently serves as an exhibiton center and as an office park. The terrace on the 35th floor is a major tourist attraction.