Residential towers once stood on the corners of the southern side, connected to the Cekhauz and forming a curtain of external walls.
The construction of the Arsenal was supervised by artillery General Paweł Grodzicki. The armoury has been repeatedly rebuilt and expanded – during the Saxon dynasty, in the Baroque style and, in the 19th century, in the classical style. Finally, in the 1930’s, the Arsenal was given the appearance which it has today.
The Warsaw Arsenal has borne witness to many historical events, among them being the boy-scouts of the “Grey Ranks” launching "Operation Arsenal", during which they attacked a truck and freed Polish prisoners.
Weapons stored here served participants in the struggle for Polish independence – the Kościuszko and November Uprisings. In its more than 350-years-old history, the Arsenal building has served various functions. Between 1832 and 1935, it was a prison and, from 1939 until the end of World War II, it housed the Warsaw Municipal Archive.