The Warsaw Fotoplastikon is a working Kaiser-panorama from 1905 — a large circular stereoscope machine with 25 viewing windows where visitors sit to see three-dimensional historical slides revolve past. It is the last commercial fotoplastikon still in operation in the world. The current programme mixes historical slides of 19th-century Warsaw and other cities with contemporary photography shown in 3D.
Performances run for about 15 minutes and the machine operates on a fixed schedule. It is a genuinely strange and wonderful experience — the slides advance automatically, the mechanism clicks, and you sit in the dark looking at crystal-clear 3D photographs of Victorian-era cities. Finding it (on Aleje Jerozolimskie, behind an unremarkable facade) is half the adventure.