The site was first built up in the 14th century, when the Masovian dukes used it as a residence. Sigismund III Vasa enlarged the castle from 1598 to 1619. Giovanni Trevano led the reconstruction, and Matteo Castelli took over the western wing after 1614. The New Royal Tower, also called Sigismund's Tower, was finished in 1619.
Gaetano Chiaveri designed the Baroque eastern wing, completed in 1747. The infobox gives the style as Mannerist-Baroque, and the text describes the five wings as Mannerist with early Baroque features. Sigismund's Tower is 197 feet (60 m) tall. The Four-Year Parliament drafted the Constitution of May 3, 1791, in the castle.
The castle was shelled and set on fire in September 1939, and the Germans blew up its remaining walls in 1944, after the Warsaw Uprising. Rebuilding ran from 1971 to 1984, and the castle regained its original 17th-century appearance. UNESCO listed it in 1980.
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