On July 19, 1974, the clock on the Zygmunt Tower was restarted, marking the completion of the castle's exterior after its wartime destruction. The clock, damaged during the 1939 bombing, had its hands frozen at 11:15 for decades until its symbolic restart.

The jubilee of the clock's reactivation coincides with the ongoing process of opening new parts of the castle, director of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Professor Fałkowski said, highlighting an updated multimedia exhibition titled: ‘Destruction and Reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.’

This exhibition features narrations by renowned actors Zbigniew Zamachowski and Andrzej Seweryn, with immersive visual effects to evoke the castle's wartime devastation.

“Anniversaries like this serve to honor those who contributed to the castle's rebirth and remind us of the collective effort of millions of Poles,” Fałkowski said.

The exhibition, now a permanent addition, resides in the castle's basement, the only part that remained intact after World War II.

The clock's reactivation in 1974 drew thousands of Warsaw residents and has since stood as a testament to resilience and recovery.

After the initial bombing on September 17, 1939, and subsequent destruction in 1944, the clock's restart symbolized hope and renewal.

The castle, along with the Old Town, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980, further cementing its historical and cultural significance.