NOWY SWIAT - or “New World” - street, part of the historic Royal Route, is one of the most recognized streets in Poland. It played a huge role in the social life of the nobility since the 17th century. Vibrant, inspiring, full of fancy restaurants, bars and clubs. The venue of cultural and fashion outdoor events. It is the most popular meeting place in Warsaw.
You’ll glimpse it in the bustling boutiques and the popular designer stores. You’ll feel it as you stroll down the rows of pubs and jazz clubs that line the banks of the Vistula river, and which are filled from dusk until the small hours with prosperous locals and students.
It is a space for artists, with a spread of small studios and galleries and some original public art installations, including quirky 50 foot-high “Warsaw Palm Tree”. When describing hotel’s location we say - Hotel by the Palm Tree. Easy to find.
Fryderyk Chopin, internationally renowned composer, also lived in the neighbourhood until the age of 20, on Krakowskie Przedmieście street no. 5. It was in Warsaw that he studied music and where his heart found its final resting place in Holy Cross Church (kościół św. Krzyża) on Krakowskie Przedmieście. ‘A native of Warsaw, a Pole at heart, with the talent of a world citizen.’ – Polish poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid wrote about Chopin.
SMOLNA STREET, where the Hotel Indigo is located, was home to a few notable representatives of Polish culture and art.
Franciszek Żmurko, one of Warsaw’s most renowned painters of the academism, occupied the top level of Smolna 40 building.
A novelist Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński lived at Smolna 11. Today his home is an office of Iskra publishing company, which nurtures the memory of him and other Polish writers. One of the rooms turned into Boy's office, full of old furniture and trinkets. There are Boy's letters and many books with writer's dedicates.
The house no. 21 was occupied by the famous Polish writer Zygmunt Kisielewski, Pilsudski's legionnaire, novelist, father of Stefan Kisielewski, grandfather of pianist Wacław Kisielewski.
A well-known resident of the house no. 36 was Jadwiga Waydel-Dmochowska, the author of the most beautiful memoirs about Warsaw of the 19th and 20th centuries.
At house no. 17 lived Helena Szalayowa, who hosted in 1913 her famous sister - Maria Skłodowska-Curie.
