palace passed into ownership of Poland's last king, Stanisław II Augustus, who hired the architect Domenico Merlini to once again redesign the inside rooms of the palace and join the library wing of the Royal Castle to it. The king then made a present of the redecorated place to his nephew Prince Józef Poniatowski The younger Poniatowski was a successful commander in the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising, and later one of Napoleon Bonaparte's marshals. Under his ownership the palace became a center of Warsaw's high class social scene. When Warsaw became part of Kingdom of Prussia after the Third Partition of Poland the buildings became the headquarters for the Prussian Ministry of War. The Copper-Roof Palace was burned in 1944 and reconstructed, based on paintings of Bernardo Bellotto, between 1948 and 1949. Currently the palace is a museum hosting, inter alia, a permanent exhibition of oriental carpets and other oriental decorative art, donated to the museum by Mrs. Teresa Sahakian. The collection comprises 579 items, 562 of which are textiles. Interesting facts On 24 May 1829 in the Royal Castle's Senator's Hall, Nicholas I of Russia was crowned King of Poland. On 5 November 1916, the Act of 5 November was announced in the Grand Hall. On 23 April 1935, the April Constitution was signed in the Knight Hall. Stanisław Augustus Poniatowski's regalia are kept in the Royal Chapel. These are the Order of the White Eagle, the ceremonial sword of the Saint Stanisław's Order and aquamarine sceptre. The insignia of presidential power are also stored in the Castle- the stamp of the President, the Jack of the President of the Republic of Poland and national documents, which Ryszard Kaczorowski gave to Lech Wałęsa on 22 December 1990. Many of the Polish legends are connected with the Royal Castle. According to one of them in 1569 the King Sigismund Augustus, who was in mourning after death of his beloved wife Barbara Radziwiłł, asked the renowned sorcerer Master Twardowski to evoke her ghost. The experiment was successful with support of a magic mirror, which today is kept in the Węgrów Cathedral. Despite that some people suspected that it was not the Queen's ghost but closely resembling her king's mistress Barbara Giżanka and the whole event was set up by Giżanka's accomplice Mikołaj Mniszech, king's chamberlain. The Royal Castle in Warsaw is one of the official members of the Association of European Royal