Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Palace of Culture and Science

As I said in earlier captions, while the Palace of Culture and Science is cultivated and interesting, the surroundings are a bizarre mix of big and small business, both cheesy and not so cheesy. All in all, the effect is a little bit hard to grasp.

Here's what looks like a stationary steam engine, or possibly air compressor, that was on display on the steps of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw.

Here's the data plaque for the ROM.

This immense hard drive, or actually ROM they say it is, helps to illustrate not only how far computers have come, but also how the countries of Eastern Europe were quite sophisticated for their time, as this machine was not vastly inferior to what was available in the West.

Here's the data plaque for the BMW R42 motorcycle at the Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw.

This BMW was also among the motorcycles displayed at the Palace of Culture and Science, but being a BMW it's naturally a lot less exotic, even if it is very old.

Here's the data plaque for the NSU 200 motorbike.

The science and technology museum at the Palace of Culture and Science has a substantial motorcycle collection, even if it isn't anywhere close to being the world's largest. One of the displays is this NSU 200, a German make that also produced cars. A fascinating Wiki can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSU_Motorenwerke_AG

This is a sectioned, but real, Fiat 126P, on display in the science and technology museum in the Palace of Culture and Science. As you might have guessed, "P," stands for "Poland," as Fiat had an agreement with Lada of the Soviet Union to produce cars in the East, in exchange for access to Soviet steel. Lada in turn got the rights to produce the Fiat 124, which became the classic Lada 1500 sedan that you can see elsewhere in my photos.

To give an even stranger perspective on the development around the Palace of Culture and Science, I decided to tilt the Nikon like so, sort of like what I did with the Lomo by Kavarna Slavia in Prague. What do you think? :-)

The Palace of Culture and Science, in spite of its name, is surrounded by the kind of cheesy and bizarre commercial development that sprung up throughout the Eastern Bloc post-1989, and you can find just about anything there. This photo helps to illustrate the point. They even have an obelisk!!! The obelisk isn't commercial, though.

These shots are a little bit out of order, but I think that if I put them in this order, rather than their correct chronological order, my story will make more sense. :-) This is the Palace of Culture and Science, or "Pałac Kultury i Nauki," in Warsaw, Poland. It was built in 1952-1955, and originally dedicated to Joseph Stalin, as Soviet money financed it, although this was quickly revoked with the Destalinisation reforms in the Communist Party during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The building has long been exactly what its name indicates, having a theatre, a cinema, a science and technology museum, and many other things having to do with history, the arts, culture, science, and technology. One of the odder footnotes in its history was that it was the first ever Communist venue to host a Western rock band, the Rolling Stones, in 1967.