The Apartment of Maria Dąbrowska

In August 1917, Maria and Marian Dąbrowski moved into apartment no. 31 in the tenement house at 40 Polna Street (today's address: 1 Progi Street, apt. 13).

The three-room, hundred-square-metre apartment was, by the standards of the time, not a particularly luxurious home for a young, childless couple of intellectuals. It lay on the outskirts of Warsaw (beyond it stretched the Mokotów Field, which gave Polna Street its name), in a second-floor annex.

Maria Dąbrowska lived in this apartment for 37 years, and most of her outstanding literary works were written here, including the novel Noce i dnie. She also set the action of some of her works here. Despite her move in 1954, she often returned in thought to Polna Street, as she expressed in Dzienniki.

The Maria Dąbrowska Museum at 40 Polna Street was established in 1984 through the efforts of the writer's friends and neighbours. Furniture, mementos of the writer, a few manuscripts and photographs, paintings she made herself, and an enormous book collection returned to apartment no. 31. Because the tenement escaped destruction during the Second World War and is one of the few surviving buildings in left-bank Warsaw, the apartment preserved its beautiful stoves, stucco ceilings, prewar floor, shutters and doors.

The Museum presents the writer's literary and journalistic legacy, her artworks and personal mementos, including a rich book collection. It also commemorates Marian Dąbrowski and Stanisław Stempowski. The Museum hosts museum lessons, literary evenings, lectures, readings, intimate concerts, theatre performances, book promotions and meetings with cultural figures,