Venue: Warsaw Fotoplastikon
Town: Warsaw, PL
Capacity: 24

The Warsaw Fotoplastikon is a stereoscopic theatre based on the Kaiserpanorama system of rotating stereoscopic images located in Warsaw, Poland. Operating at the same location since 1946, it is the oldest stereoscopic theatre in Europe still in business at its original location. Today it operates as a branch of the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising. The Warsaw Fotoplastikon has 24 fixed stereoscopic viewports. A visitor sits at a viewport around the circumference of the machine. Each picture, from a sequence of 48 three dimensional stereo images, appears for 15 seconds before moving on to the next. Above each viewport is a window which displays an illuminated card with a brief description of the scene below. The scenes are arranged by themes, such as a travelogue to distant lands or depictions of historic events. Recorded music related to the theme plays in the background. The Fotoplastikon uses a slightly modified version of the Kaiserpanorama peepshow system, differing in having 24 viewports instead of 25 in the Kaiserpanorama system. The Warsaw Fotoplastikon was constructed in 1901. It was first shown at a temporary location but moved to its permanent location in a small theatre at the back of an inner courtyard of Kamienica Hoserów (Hoser Townhouse Apartment Building) at 51 Jerusalem Avenue at 1946. The Warsaw Fotoplastikon is a Polish adaptation of the Kaiserpanorama peepshow technology invented in the 1890s which was popular across Europe before the growth of motion picture theatres. The Fotoplastikon has been operated at the 51 Jerusalem Avenue location since it opened, owned and run by a series of families more or less continuously since 1905, making it the oldest active in situ peepshow in Europe. Soon after World War II, in October 1946, it was opened by the Krempa (or Krępa) family, who ran the theatre until 1973. In 1973 the new owner was Józef Chudy. After his death in 1980, the Fotoplastikon closed but was relaunched by Józef Chudy's grandson, Tomasz Chudy