The manor house Chopin was born has grown into a shrine to the composer, with grown-up visitor centre, recitals and full-blown concerts. But standing now in a rambling garden, it is still immensely evocative. If passing through Warsaw in summer, be sure to catch at least one of the weekend morning recitals: you sit out in the delicious garden listening to Chopin drifting out from open windows for a brief half an hour of bliss. Also delicious is iced coffee. The house, now in the hands of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw, is much altered, but rooms have been restored to something approximating the house in Chopin’s day and hung with old photographs and memorabilia.

The story of the house and Chopin’s youth is told here.