The opening ceremony of the 17^th International Congress of Turkish Art took place on September 18, 2023, at the Museum of King Jan III’s Palace in Wilanów, Warsaw. It was accompanied by the opening of the exhibition “This is the Great Light and the Key of Paradise. Hymns from King Sobieski’s Tatar villages” devoted to the literary, religious, and artistic culture of the Tatars in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The exhibition was organized by the Museum as an event accompanying the 17^th ICTA. The opening day also included a presentation of the Museum’s permanent exhibition, a reception, and a presentation of a reconstruction of historical Polish cuisine from the time of King Jan III Sobieski.

The 17^th ICTA in Warsaw also featured a temporary exhibition, „Oriental Paradise: Turkish Influences in Old Polish Gardens,” installed at the Museum of King Jan III’s Palace in Wilanów. It was devoted to Turkish motifs in the garden art of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and outdoor displays in the historic gardens surrounding the Wilanów palace. The gardens were one of significant areas of cultural exchange between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. The exhibition featured plant models that enjoyed considerable popularity – tulips, imperial chessboards, and Mediterranean plants such as citrus fruits, fig trees, and rosemary can be still found in Polish gardens today.

The 17^th ICTA working sessions took place from September 19^th to 21^st in the premisses of Old Library of the University of Warsaw (BUW). These were accompanied by study presentations of oriental collections, organized in cooperation with the National Library and the Central Archives of Historical Records (AGAD) at their respective locations, on September 19^th and 20^th.

Following the sessions, a general reception for all participants was held at the Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów, followed by a presentation of the traditional culinary culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars and a photographic exhibition devoted to this community in Lithuania. It was presented by the Tatars of the village Sorok Tatary (Lith. Keturiasdešimt Totorių, Eng. Forty Tatars) in Vilnius region, on the on September 18^th.

On September 21^st, a cocktail party was held at the invitation of the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in Warsaw to celebrate the work of Professor Tadeusz Majda (organizer of the previous ICTA Congress in Poland, i.e. the 7^th International Congress of Turkish Art, which took place in Warsaw in 1983).

On September 22^nd, Congress participants went on a study trip to Krakow, where the Oriental and Old Polish collections of the Princes Czartoryski Museum and the Wawel Castle Museum were showcased to them. ICTA participants also visited Wawel Cathedral with the tombs of Polish kings and the historic centre of Krakow with the famous Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) in the Old Town Square.

On September 23^rd, Congress participants went on a next study trip to Podlasie, to meet Polish-Lithuanian Tatar sites and cultural monuments (mosques and cemeteries in Bohoniki and Kruszyniany villages, as well as Tatar community collections), as well as historical cultural monuments of the Jews of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Grand Synagogue in Tykocin). Both of these trips, accompanying the Congress, were arranged in cooperation with museum institutions in Krakow (the National Museum in Krakow, the Wawel Castle Museum) and Tatar communities in Podlasie.