Congress Hall

The Congress Hall (Sala Kongresowa) is the main auditorium inside Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science, the Soviet skyscraper-gift to Poland of the 1950s. The hall seats roughly 2,880 and was for decades the capital's premier venue: in 1967 the Rolling Stones played their legendary first concert behind the Iron Curtain here, Marlene Dietrich followed in 1969. Communist Party congresses, international boxing bouts and the Jazz Jamboree all unfolded in the heavy Stalinist socialist-realist interior. Since 2019 the hall has been closed for a full renovation; on special guided tours of the Palace, visitors can still admire the marble wall panels and the monumental stage.