2 Zlotys Polish Theater in Warsaw

The Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw, one of the largest opera houses in the world by stage area, was inaugurated in 1833 after a design by Antonio Corazzi. It was almost entirely destroyed during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, then painstakingly reconstructed over decades under the direction of Bohdan Pniewski, reopening in 1965 in a significantly enlarged form. The rebuilding consumed an extraordinary share of postwar Polish cultural reconstruction funds at a time when basic housing remained desperately short.