Royal Łazienki - The Royal Theatre and Old Orangery

This guide to the Royal Theatre and Old Orangery at Royal Łazienki in Warsaw starts with the strange fact of a national theatre company moving into a greenhouse for three months in seventeen ninety-one, with the king covering every ticket. It follows architect Domenico Merlini's building for King Stanisław August's exotic trees, the working eighteenth-century court theatre hidden inside it, and the acoustic tricks built into its painted walls and ceiling. Gilded figures hold candlesticks along the walls, and overhead Apollo drives his chariot across the painted ceiling.