It was built between 1677–1696 for the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania John III Sobieski according to a design by architect Augustyn Wincenty Locci.

[7] Besides European and Oriental art, the central part of the palace displayed a commemoration of King John III Sobieski and the glorious national past.

Between 1688 and 1696 the pavilion above the main building was erected and the towers were covered with baroque spires, all resembling the Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome (especially its initial design by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi).

[12] The latter was responsible for the ideological and artistic programme, where motives and decoration elements played an essential role in glorifying the monarch, his wife and the Republic - busts of king and queen among the effigies of ancient characters, gods and goddesses, Roman emperors and empresses (such as the Dioscuri, Zeus-Amun, Sibyl, Romulus, Rhea Silvia, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Dido and Vespasian among others), Eagle and Pogonia, personifications of the Commonwealth regions (Masovia and Greater Poland, Samogitia, Red Ruthenia and Royal Prussia).

[13] They were issued by sculptors Andreas Schlüter (many reliefs and other secondary aspects of the façade),[14] Stefan Szwaner and a stucco decorator named Antoni of Wilanów.

[19] Despite that she transformed the palace into a French style palais enchanté according to a design by Giovanni Spazzio, with two new wings harmonious with the 17th century corps de logis.

It was entrusted to painters Martino Altomonte, Jan Rayzner of Lviv, Michelangelo Palloni, sculptor Stefan Szwaner and stucco decorators Szymon Józef Bellotti, Antoni of Wilanów and Abraham Paris.

The latter, one of the greatest Polish painters of that time, had a significant influence on the palace's subsequent internal aspects (plafonds in the state rooms, frescoes).

[21] Internal decoration was also superintended by Adam Kochański, a great admirer of China, who supported closer economic relations of the Commonwealth with the "Central nation".

[24] Unfortunately they were scattered by the successive proprietors, appropriated by Frederick Augustus[clarification needed] of Saxony and transported to Dresden[25] or looted by the Germans during World War II (e.g. John III's tortoise-shell cabinet, never retrieved).

Following the example of Queen Marie Casimire Sobieska, who ordered a painting of herself as a goddess on the palace plafonds, Elżbieta Sieniawska embellished the Lower Vestibule with a fresco of Flora.

[27] The walls of the second floor, that is the Great Dining Room, were covered with frescoes depicting Apollo, Minerva and Hercules as an allegory of Virtus Heroica (Heroic Valor), Hebe symbolizing Venustas (Beauty) completed with panoplies.

Sieniawska's daughter, Maria Zofia Czartoryska, furnished the palace with new fireplaces made of white-cherry marble and crowned with mirrors in rich rococo frames.

[29] The plafonds and other paintings were executed by Julien Poison, Johann Samuel Mock and Lorenzo Rossi, while the decorative lacquer panneaux in the Chinese Room were made by Martin Schnell.