This is the English version of an article first published in Polish: read the Polish original. It refers to source material: warszawa.naszemiasto.pl. The text is our own commentary, not a translation or copy of that source.
On October 21 the Museum of King John III's Palace in Wilanów announced that the Royal Garden of Light will not light up the palace gardens this winter. The exhibition, known for over four hundred thousand LED lights shaped into flowers, animals and the silhouettes of historical figures, had run without a break since 2012, through fourteen autumn and winter seasons. Each edition had its own theme, and the last one, the 2025/2026 season, was dedicated to a rose garden. This year's pause is the first since then.
What the museum says
In its statement the museum's management wrote that the decision comes from a need to review past experience and analyze changing visitor expectations and new trends in outdoor light exhibitions. The museum says it is working on a new concept that would combine modern technological solutions with the historic character of the gardens. Management stresses that pausing the exhibition does not mean it is ending for good, though it gives no date for when the garden might light up again.
For Wilanów residents this is a noticeable change to the winter calendar. In previous years the garden lit up every evening from mid or late October through the end of February, usually from 4 or 5 PM to 9 PM. A regular ticket cost 35 zloty on weekdays and 55 zloty on weekends and on evenings with a mapping show projected onto the palace facade, with lower reduced rates. None of that will happen this winter, and the historic park, as always, stays free to enter only until early evening, with no illumination after dark.
The museum has not yet confirmed any specific replacement for this winter season, though it says it is in talks with potential partners about a new event in the gardens. Piotr Górajec currently serves as the museum's acting director. For anyone in Wilanów who was looking for this particular attraction, the one confirmed chance for free entry to the palace this winter remains the Darmowy Listopad weekend planned for the end of November, on November 28 and 29, with a craft fair and a concert in the orangery. That is a separate event though, not a light exhibition, and it does not replace the Garden of Light.
