Muzeum Marii Dąbrowskiej

What to expect

Progi Street is a short, quiet lane behind Pulawska, near Krolikarnia. Number 1, flat 13, ground floor. Maria Dabrowska moved here in autumn 1944, right after the liberation of Mokotow, and did not leave until her death on 19 May 1965. Twenty-one years in one apartment – a writer who described entire generations in “Nights and Days” anchored herself to a single point on the map.

The museum preserves the apartment in a state close to the original. The study with the desk where Dabrowska wrote her diary (published posthumously, thirteen volumes – one of the most important documents of 20th-century Poland). Bookshelves holding thousands of volumes, from classics to contemporary works. Period furniture, photographs, manuscripts, correspondence with other writers. Paintings and prints on the walls.

Dabrowska is one of Poland’s most important prose writers. “Noce i dnie” (Nights and Days, 1932-1934) – a family saga of the Niechcic family across four volumes, read today as a chronicle of the old world’s twilight. But Dabrowska also wrote essays and short stories, and translated Samuel Pepys and Dickens into Polish. In this apartment she hosted an informal literary salon – visitors included Jerzy Andrzejewski, Anna Kowalska (Dabrowska’s life partner for their last twenty years together), Julian Przybos and Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz.

This is a branch of the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature. Visits include a guided tour – the curator talks about the writer’s life, the literary context of the era, and a complex biography (her marriage to Marian Dabrowski, her relationship with Anna Kowalska, her dealings with the communist authorities).

Tips

• Visits by prior arrangement – phone 22 843 41 78 or contact the Museum of Literature. Hours: Monday-Friday 10:00-15:00.
• Free entry.
• Ground floor, but no wheelchair access – narrow passages, thresholds (the street name “Progi” literally means “thresholds”).
• The exhibition is for those interested in 20th-century Polish literature. Younger children will find little to engage with.
• Worth combining with a visit to Wladyslaw Broniewski Museum (51 Dabrowskiego Street, 1 km north) – same institution, similar character.
• After your visit, walk to nearby Krolikarnia Park – a historic palace housing a sculpture museum, beautiful park on the Vistula escarpment.

Getting there

Bus: Lines 166, 195 – Progi or Krolikarnia stop, 3 minutes on foot.

Tram: Lines 4, 10, 14 – Krolikarnia stop (ul. Pulawska), 5 minutes walk east.

Metro: Wilanowska (M1) – 1 km south. Wierzbno (M1) – 1 km north.

By car: Street parking on ul. Progi. Quiet area, spaces usually available.

Nearby museums

The Pulawska corridor in Mokotow clusters several institutions. Krolikarnia Sculpture Museum (113a Pulawska Street, 400 m – Polish sculpture in a Domenico Merlini palace), Wladyslaw Broniewski Museum (51 Dabrowskiego Street, 1 km north – another branch of the Museum of Literature). Further: PIG Geological Museum (4 Rakowiecka Street, 2 km north – minerals, rocks, fossils).