A historic property, billed as Warsaw’s smallest house, is due to be revived as a tiny art gallery, a year after it was bought by monks from the neighboring church.
Measuring just 12 square meters, the house at Długa 1 in the city’s so-called New Town was built in 1843 to replace a wooden shack that had served as a store.
Under the ownership of Karol Banasch, the address immediately became known as the city’s finest tobacconist, specializing as it did in tobacco imported from Constantinople and cigars from locations as far afield as Cuba and Mexico.
Such was its fame, it was visited by the poet and playwright Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Józef Chłopicki, a Polish general who had once fought for Napoleon during his doomed march on Moscow.
Later, the store passed into the hands of Felicjan Cywiński, and it was he who introduced the practice of rewarding loyal customers with a glass of wine. At a time of Imperial Russian repression, it became an ideal spot for anti-Tsarist conspirators to convene for covert drop-offs and exchanges.
Under the ownership of Karol Banasch, the address immediately became known as the city’s finest tobacconist, specializing as it did in tobacco imported from Constantinople and cigars from locations as far afield as Cuba and Mexico.
Such was its fame, it was visited by the poet and playwright Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Józef Chłopicki, a Polish general who had once fought for Napoleon during his doomed march on Moscow.
Later, the store passed into the hands of Felicjan Cywiński, and it was he who introduced the practice of rewarding loyal customers with a glass of wine. At a time of Imperial Russian repression, it became an ideal spot for anti-Tsarist conspirators to convene for covert drop-offs and exchanges.
Sold to Antoni Pawłowski in 1869 for 3,000 rubles, his tenure in charge scandalized the city after he added not just foreign media to the store’s repertoire, but also erotic Parisian postcards.
Emerging from the 1944 Warsaw Uprising looking singed and bruised, its shell remained intact and in the post-war years it sold soda water before becoming a Ruch newspaper kiosk from 1954 onwards.
Vacated by Ruch in 2021—and looking increasingly decrepit—it was purchased last year from the city by the Pauline monks for 151,000 złoty (€36,260) under the condition that they renovated it and preserved the building’s historical integrity.
Emerging from the 1944 Warsaw Uprising looking singed and bruised, its shell remained intact and in the post-war years it sold soda water before becoming a Ruch newspaper kiosk from 1954 onwards.
Vacated by Ruch in 2021—and looking increasingly decrepit—it was purchased last year from the city by the Pauline monks for 151,000 złoty (€36,260) under the condition that they renovated it and preserved the building’s historical integrity.
This they are set to do. Made public today, their plans for the property—which is the smallest in Warsaw to have its own entry in the mortgage registry—will undergo a full revamp courtesy of architect Jacek Tryc before being reborn as a gallery of sacral art.
“Designing such a small but symbolically important object is an interesting challenge for me, as every detail will be of great importance here,” said Tryc.
“We want to restore this place to its former glory, but also open it to new life. The gallery at Długa 1 will not only be a tribute to history but above all, a space for dialogue between art and spirituality—this is architecture that is small in format but great in significance,” he added.
“Designing such a small but symbolically important object is an interesting challenge for me, as every detail will be of great importance here,” said Tryc.
“We want to restore this place to its former glory, but also open it to new life. The gallery at Długa 1 will not only be a tribute to history but above all, a space for dialogue between art and spirituality—this is architecture that is small in format but great in significance,” he added.
