Maria Dąbrowska Museum

What to expect

Progi Street is a short, quiet lane in the Koszyki area of Śródmieście Południowe, just off Polna and Waryńskiego, a few dozen metres from Politechnika metro station. Number 1, flat 13, second floor of a historic tenement house. Maria Dąbrowska moved in here in 1917 and stayed for thirty-seven years, until 1954. Most of her work was written in these rooms, “Nights and Days” among it - a writer who described entire generations anchored herself for nearly four decades to a single point on the map. She moved out in 1954, after the death of Stanisław Stempowski, to Niepodległości Avenue, and died in Warsaw on 19 May 1965.

The museum preserves the apartment in a state close to the original. The study with the desk where Dąbrowska 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.

Dąbrowska 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 Dąbrowska 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 (Dąbrowska’s life partner for their last twenty years together), Julian Przybos and Jarosław 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 Dąbrowski, her relationship with Anna Kowalska, her dealings with the communist authorities).

Tips

• Opening hours: Tuesday-Wednesday 10:00-16:00, Thursday 12:00-18:00, Friday 9:00-15:00. Closed on Monday, Saturday and Sunday. Phone: 22 825 31 13 (temporary second line: 22 697 53 76).
• Standard ticket 15 zł, concession 8 zł. Groups over 10 people and Large Family Card holders pay 8 zł per person. A guided tour for groups or individual visitors costs 50 zł, a museum lesson 70 zł per group, a workshop 20 zł per person. Children under 7 enter free.
• Second floor, but the tenement house has a lift - a wheelchair user still cannot get there unaided: the entrance door has a 16 cm threshold and four steps lead from the vestibule to the lift (the street name “Progi” literally means “thresholds”). The museum provides assistance over those steps - call ahead. The toilet is not adapted and the doors inside the apartment are under 90 cm wide. Assistance dogs are welcome.
• 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 Andrzej Strug Museum (210 Niepodległości Avenue, 700 m west) - another branch of the Museum of Literature, also set in the writer’s own apartment.
• After your visit, walk to plac Zbawiciela (250 m) or on towards Pole Mokotowskie park.

Getting there

Metro: Politechnika (M1) - the exit is practically at the museum’s door, under 100 metres.

Tram: Lines 10, 11, 14, 15 - Metro Politechnika stop (ul. Waryńskiego), about 150 metres.

Bus: Lines 118, 151, 411, 502, 514, 520, 525 - Metro Politechnika stop. Night lines: N25, N31, N37, N81.

By car: Street parking on ul. Progi. The lane itself is short and quiet, but this is central Warsaw paid-parking territory - expect it to be tight on weekdays.

Nearby museums

The plac Politechniki and Koszyki area of Śródmieście clusters several institutions. Bolesław Biegas Museum (6/13 Lwowska Street, 300 m - sculpture and painting by the Symbolist), Museum of Life under Communism (28/34 Piękna Street, 400 m - everyday life in the communist era), Children’s Book Museum (26/28 Koszykowa Street, 450 m - children’s literature collections). Further: Andrzej Strug Museum (210 Niepodległości Avenue, 700 m west - another branch of the Museum of Literature).