Museum of Fryderyk Chopin in Warsaw

The Ostrogski Palace houses the Fryderyk Chopin Museum, recognizable by the sweeping, modern glass-and-steel wing that cuts through the seventeenth-century baroque stone. This building guards the world’s largest collection of Chopin memorabilia, including his final piano, gold pocket watch, and thousands of personal letters. During the Second World War, Nazi forces gutted the palace and burned his manuscripts, but curators hid the most precious relics in the basements of Warsaw apartments. Today, those salvaged scores remain legible beneath the protective glass cases.