Warsaw has just given all chocolate fans a reason to visit Poland: A new chocolate museum is opening at the headquarters of Polish chocolate manufacturer E.Wedel in Warsaw.
From September 4 onwards, visitors will be able to take a journey through the entire chocolate production process, from picking and roasting the cocoa beans to processing and packaging the finished product over an area of 8,000 square metres – making it Poland’s largest chocolate museum.
The façade of the new museum matches the theme visually and visitors are greeted by a building that resembles a large bar of chocolate.
The Fabryka Czekolady (“Chocolate Factory”), as the museum is officially called, also provides information about the history of the E.Wedel company, founded more than 170 years ago.
Using the motto Można (“You can”), curators are expressly encouraging visitors to try things out here. In the interactive exhibition areas you can taste, smell and even lend a hand by designing your own chocolate bar.
If you’re already considering heading to Warsaw for the chocolate museum, then the Polish Vodka Museum might help seal the deal. Here, visitors can learn everything there is to know about one the Polish national drink.
In the former factory, located in the now trendy district of Praga, visitors get to know the distillation process through virtual and interactive exhibits, while discovering bartender tricks and the role vodka has played in national politics.
Visitors also learn all about how Polish vodka gained its prestigious international reputation. Thankfully, they can put their new-found knowledge to the test with a tasting at the on-site bar and restaurant.
Poland was also once a world capital of neon signs. Today, many of these neon signs glow on the dark old walls of the Soho Factory in Warsaw.
The former industrial site is attracting hundreds of visitors every day with a collection of fluorescent relics that also gives tourists a sense of how neon advertising was used as a creative weapon in Poland’s Cold War struggle with the West.
The Neon Museum also offer a fascinating snapshot of Polish history up until the ubiquitous signs were torn down with the Iron Curtain.
The neon boom fell into decline after the 1970s. Damaged signs were thrown away, while others simply consumed too much electricity for their owners to keep them. In Poland, the medium was also eventually supplanted by advertising from the West after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.
