The historic 5-star Hotel Europejski is the most famous hotel in Poland. The Europejski is also a prominent Polish supporter of Ukraine. Well known in Poland for its art collection, the hotel recently organized an art auction to raise funds to aid Ukrainian children. Kinoteka, the venue for the Warsaw Drone Summit is only a 10-minute taxi ride away, or a 20-minute walk.
If the name “Europejski” sounds vaguely familiar to you, it is likely because of it is one of the main locations appearing in “The Spies Of Warsaw,” the bestselling historical fiction espionage novel by Alan Furst set in Warsaw the late 1930’s. It begins thus:
In the dying light of an autumn day in 1937, a certain Herr Edvard Uhl, a secret agent, descended from a first-class railway carriage in the city of Warsaw. Above the city, the sky was at war; the last of the sun struck blood-red embers off massed black cloud, while the clear horizon to the west was the color of blue ice. Herr Uhl suppressed a shiver; the sharp air of the evening, he told himself. But this was Poland, the border of the Russian steppe, and what had reached him was well beyond the chill of an October twilight. A taxi waited on Jerozolimskie street, in front of the station. The driver, an old man with a seamed face, sat patiently, knotted hands at rest on the steering wheel. “Hotel Europejski,” Uhl told the driver…
“At last the imposing Hotel Europejski, with its giant of a doorman in visored cap and uniform worthy of a Napoleonic marshal.”
(Alan Furst, “The Spies of Warsaw”)
Then as now, the Europejski projects both tradition, superior service, and class.
Situated along the Royal Route, a short walk from the Old Town, the building was designed by Polish-Italian architect Enrico Marconi and has since been one of Warsaw’s architectural symbols. Severely damaged during the Second World War, over the years it was systematically rebuilt at a great expense. Now managed by Raffles Hotels & Resorts, it reopened on 1 June 2018 after five years of extensive renovations, with 106 rooms, restaurant, bar, spa, and the Lourse Patisserie.
The hotel’s Long Bar, with tile mural by Jarosław Fliciński, is an attraction in its own right. It’s a trendy cocktail hotspot in Warsaw, and the locally inspired variant of the Singapore Sling, using a quince liqueur, might be even better than the original.
The Europejski has been at high rates of occupancy since the invasion of Ukraine began, so we recommend that you book promptly. The Europejski only has 106 rooms in total.
