Raffles Europejski Warsaw

On Krakowskie Przedmieście, at the head of the Royal Route and next to the Presidential Palace, the Hotel Europejski is the oldest grand hotel of the Polish capital, now Raffles Europejski Warsaw. Reopened in 2018 after a reconstruction that stripped it back to its walls, it is the leading luxury hotel in Warsaw and a gallery of Polish contemporary art.

History

The Hotel Europejski was designed by Henryk Marconi, the Italian-born architect of many of Warsaw's nineteenth-century landmarks, and opened in stages from 1857, with the full building completed in 1878. It was the first hotel of its scale in the city, with a grand courtyard, a ballroom and a famous cafe, Lourse, on the ground floor. Through the partitions, the independence of 1918 and the inter-war years it was Warsaw's principal address for visiting diplomats, artists and businessmen.

The building was severely damaged during the Second World War and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The architect Bohdan Pniewski led its reconstruction in the 1950s, when it first housed a military academy before returning to hotel use in 1962 under the state company Orbis. After the fall of communism the heirs of the original owners recovered the property. The hotel closed in 2013 for a complete rebuilding behind the historic facade and reopened in 2018 as Raffles Europejski Warsaw, the first Raffles in Poland. The building is listed in the municipal register of monuments.

Architecture and design

Marconi's facade is a long Neo-Renaissance elevation of arched windows and rusticated stone, restored to its historic appearance, while the interior was built new within it. The present design is contemporary and restrained, with marble, oak and a quiet palette, and the hotel commissioned and acquired several hundred works by Polish artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, hung in the rooms, corridors and public spaces. The Lourse patisserie, named after the nineteenth-century cafe, has returned to the ground floor.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 106 rooms and suites, large by the standards of historic buildings because the reconstruction redrew the plan. The suites along Krakowskie Przedmieście look across the Royal Route to the Presidential Palace and towards the Old Town.

Dining

The Europejski Grill is the main restaurant, serving Polish produce in a contemporary register. The Lourse patisserie continues the house's tradition of pastry and coffee, and the Long Bar and a cigar lounge complete the ground floor, alongside a fourth venue on the courtyard side.

Wellness

A spa on the upper floor offers treatment rooms, a fitness suite and relaxation areas.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a ballroom and a series of salons on its event floor, used for weddings, receptions, conferences and diplomatic functions, a role it has played for Warsaw since the nineteenth century. Its position beside the Presidential Palace and a short walk from the Old Town makes it a natural venue for state and corporate occasions.

Location

The hotel is at Krakowskie Przedmieście 13, on the Royal Route between the Old Town and the university quarter, facing Piłsudski Square and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The main gate of the University of Warsaw and the Church of the Holy Cross, where Chopin's heart is kept, are a few minutes along the street. Count about 25 minutes by car to Warsaw Chopin Airport; Warszawa Centralna station is a ten-minute taxi ride or a 25-minute walk.