Chopin’s younger sister Izabella once lived in part of the palace. Her apartment was also a shelter for items owned by her famous brother. All these objects survived until a certain dramatic development of 1863 – a failed attack on the life of the tsar’s governor, General Fyodor Berg, from the windows of the Zamoyski Palace. Berg was ruling Warsaw on the order of the Russian tsar.
In revenge for the attempted assassination, the tsar’s soldiers evicted all palace tenants, their apartments destroyed and plundered. Russian troops smashed and burned Fryderyk Chopin’s grand piano as well as other treasured family belongings.
The event inspired one of Poland’s most famous poets, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, to write his poem “Chopin’s Grand Piano”.
Today, the Zamoyski Palace houses teaching facilities of the University of Warsaw.
