Ziemiańska Cafe

Ziemiańska or Mała Ziemiańska (the name coined after the term ''ziemianin'', meaning member of Polish landed gentry) was a

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. It was notable as a meeting place of many of Poland's most prominent artists of the inter-war period. The venture was founded in 1918 at 12, Mazowiecka Street in Warsaw's city centre. It was officially opened on April 14 of that year and its original owners were Jan Skępski and Karol Albrecht, two prominent

pâtissier A pastry chef or pâtissier (; feminine pâtissière, ) is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, bakeries, b ...

masters. Initially the cafe consisted only of a small room with several tables, later a gallery above was added with additional tables. The cafe lay roughly halfways between the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

, the Filharmony, Zachęta Art Gallery and many notable cultural facilities. Because of that, it started to be frequented by artists of all sorts. Among the most prominent to be frequent guests there were the Skamandrites, including poets

Julian Tuwim Julian Tuwim (13 September 1894 – 27 December 1953), known also under the pseudonym Oldlen as a lyricist, was a Jewish-Polish poet, born in Łódź, then part of the Russian Partition. He was educated in Łódź and in Warsaw where he studied ...

Antoni Słonimski Antoni Słonimski (15 November 1895 – 4 July 1976) was a Polish poet, artist, journalist, playwright and prose writer, president of the Union of Polish Writers in 1956–1959 during the Polish October, known for his devotion to social justic ...

, Jan Lechoń,

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Jarosław Leon Iwaszkiewicz (; also known under his literary pseudonym Eleuter; 20 February 1894 – 2 March 1980), was a Polish writer, poet, essayist, dramatist and translator.Bartłomiej Szleszyński, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. 2003 Culture.plJ ...

and

Kazimierz Wierzyński Kazimierz Wierzyński ( Drohobycz, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, 27 August 1894 – 13 February 1969, London) was a Polish poet and journalist; an elected member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature in the Second Polish Republ ...

, as well as their frequent companion

Franciszek Fiszer Franciszek Fiszer (better known as Franc Fiszer; March 25, 1860 – April 9, 1937) was a Polish metaphysician and alchemist, a friend of the most notable writers and philosophers of contemporary Warsaw and one of Warsaw's semi-legendary people. De ...

. The table of the poets occupied the gallery, while one of the tables at the ground floor was reserved for painters and sculptors. Among its owners were Zofia Stryjeńska, Tadeusz Gronowski and

Henryk Kuna Henryk Kuna (c.1885 – 17 December 1945) was a Polish sculptor, active in the early twentieth century. His long career produced many famous works of arts including several renowned public monuments in his native country of Poland. Life Henryk K ...

, but also a poet Bolesław Leśmian. Among frequent guests were also Eugeniusz Bodo (dubbed ''the king of Polish actors''),

Adolf Dymsza Adolf Dymsza (born Adolf Bagiński; 7 April 1900 – 20 August 1975) was a Polish comedy actor of both the pre-World War II and post-war eras. He starred in both theatre and film productions, mainly before World War II. He and Kazimierz Krukowski ...

, Jadwiga Smosarska, Leon Schiller, Jerzy Zaruba,

Ludwik Solski Ludwik Solski (20 January 1855 - 19 December 1954), born Ludwik Napoleon Karol Sosnowski, was a Polish stage actor and theatre director. From his stage debut in 1876 until his death (his last performance took place six months after his 99th birth ...

and

Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (23 January 1905 – 6 December 1953), alias ''Karakuliambro'', was a Polish poet. He is well known for the "paradramatic" absurd humorous sketches of the . Biography Born to a lower-middle-class family in War ...

, who met his future wife there. Another group of guests were politicians, including Poland's prime minister

Walery Sławek Walery Jan Sławek (; 2 November 1879 – 3 April 1939) was a Polish politician, freemason, military officer and activist, who in the early 1930s served three times as Prime Minister of Poland. He was one of the closest aides of Polish lead ...

, minister of foreign affairs

Józef Beck Józef Beck (; 4 October 1894 – 5 June 1944) was a Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer. A close associate of Józef Piłsudski, Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minister in ...

and General

Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski Bolesław Ignacy Florian Wieniawa-Długoszowski (22 July 1881 – 1 July 1942) was a Polish general, adjutant to Chief of State Józef Piłsudski, politician, freemason, diplomat, poet, artist and formally for one day the President of the Republi ...

After the initial success, the owners of Ziemiańska opened up several other cafe houses in Warsaw. The most prominent of them (and the largest) was opened nearby, at the corner of Kredytowa and Jasna Street. From then on the original venue at Mazowiecka started to be called "Mała Ziemiańska" (''Small Ziemiańska''), as opposed to "Duża Ziemiańska", or ''Big Ziemiańska''. The success of the pastries served there allowed the owners to open a similar cafe in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

. It was not rebuilt. Coffeehouses and cafés in Poland Demolished buildings and structures in Poland Buildings and structures demolished in 1946 Former buildings and structures in Warsaw {{Warsaw-stub