Postmodernism, the most prominent architectural current between 1975 and 2000, was much more than the stereotype of candy-coloured façades and ironic play with columns and pediments. This lecture will present postmodernism as a socio-cultural movement that lay at the bottom of many current debates, including those over dense, functionally mixed urbanism, visible historicity, or national identity. The lecture will introduce the experiences in different European countries and set the case of Polish postmodern architecture in an international context.