Early years
The hotel originally opened on January 1, 1857. Designed by Enrico Marconi, it was one of the most luxurious hotels in the Russian Empire, which stretched from Europe to Alaska. From 1915, the architect Antoni Jawornicki, was responsible for many of the upgrades to the hotel including moving the main entrance and building two ballrooms in the courtyard. In 1921, the hotel's owners, the Przeździecki and Czetwertyński families formed the joint stock company, Hotel Europejski Spółka Akcyjna (HESA).
Post WWII nationalization and reconstruction
In 1945, after the liberation of Warsaw, the original owners received permission from the government to rebuild the hotel and commenced by setting up a restaurant in the surviving section of the building. However, before they could rebuild the whole hotel, the property was seized by the government in 1948 as a result of the Bierut Decrees.[5] The building was rebuilt during 1949–1951 to designs by Bohdan Pniewski to serve as a military school. Major structural changes included adding a balustrade along the top, and reconstruction of the ruined sections of the exterior. Many surviving elements of the interior were removed, including the grand staircase and ballrooms, replacing them with dormitories, classrooms and a gymnasium. The building served as the Military Political Academy (Akademia Wojskowa Polityczna) from 1951 to 1954, and then as offices for the Ministry of Transport. In 1956 the Polish government decided to return the building to its former use as a hotel. From 1956 to 1957, the empty building was used to house Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union.[5]
The building was transferred to the Orbis state tourist company in 1957 and converted back to a hotel, with Bohdan Pniewski again serving as architect, along with Bohdan Kijowicz.[5] The resulting hotel had 260 rooms and 13 suites. It reopened to guests on July 2, 1962, as the Orbis Hotel Europejski. In 1965, The Golden Gate Quartet performed their only concert in Poland here.
During the following decades, some of the notable guests of the hotel included: Robert Kennedy, Marlene Dietrich, The Rolling Stones, Indira Gandhi, Günter Grass, Artur Rubinstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Czesław Miłosz and Lech Wałęsa.
After the fall of communism, in 1993, the heirs of the hotel's original owners sued to regain the hotel from the state-run Orbis Hotels chain. The case took 12 years, as Orbis claimed they had constructed the current building and invested a great deal of money in it.[6] The heirs were ultimately successful in their lawsuit, and the hotel was closed down by Orbis on June 30, 2005. The hand-over was completed later that year on September 1. While preparations were made for a complete restoration, spaces on the ground floor were rented out to shops and cafes, and the former hotel rooms and apartments in the building were rented out as offices. The structure was completely closed in 2013 in anticipation of the impending reconstruction.[5]
