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The Monopol Hotel is a historic five-star hotel located at Helena Modrzejewska Street,
Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, r ...
,
Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...
, Poland.


History

It was built in 1892 in what was then Breslau,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
, in
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
/ Neo-Baroque style on the site of the graveyard of St Dorothy's Church. The graveyard had been converted into a jail in 1817. The plot was bought near the end of the 19th century for 600 000 marks by Breslau's
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
- banker Wallenberg Pachaly and architect Karl Grosser, who built a trade house and hotel in which there were 69 rooms, including 21 single occupation rooms, 46 double occupation and 2 apartments. Room size ran from and according to 19th century standards were luxurious. It was fondly christened "the pearl of Lower Silesia" (''die Perle Niederschlesiens''). Famous patrons of the hotel during the German era included
Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He rece ...
. The balcony above the main entrance was purposely built in 1937 to coincide with
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's visit to Breslau, who gave a speech from the said balcony the following year on the occasion of the German Gymnastics and Sports Festival. Singer
Jan Kiepura Jan Wiktor Kiepura (May 16, 1902 – August 15, 1966) was a Polish singer (tenor) and actor. Life and career Jan Kiepura was born in Sosnowiec, Poland, the son of Miriam (née Neuman), a former professional singer, and Franciszek Kiepura, a b ...
also appeared on the same balcony after the war to sing for a crowd of people gathered in front of the hotel. The hotel's in-house department store was located at the corner of Świdnicka and Modrzejewskiej Streets (formerly ''Schweidnitzerstraße'' and ''Agnes-Sorma-Straße'' respectively). During the last months of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
it was significantly damaged so that it was rebuilt only in 1961 and became an exclusive cafe "Monopol". At the end of the 20th century it was closed and commercial functions were restored in the building. The hotel building itself survived the war without significant damage. Following the transfer of Breslau to Poland in 1945, the hotel hosted the World Congress of Intellectuals during the Exhibition of the
Recovered Territories The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands ( pl, Ziemie Odzyskane), also known as Western Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Zachodnie), and previously as Western and Northern Territories ( pl, Ziemie Zachodnie i Północne), Postulated Territories ( pl, Z ...
in 1948 with guests such as
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Irène Joliot-Curie Irène Joliot-Curie (; ; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist, physicist and politician, the elder daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awar ...
,
Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (russian: link=no, Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable autho ...
,
Jorge Amado Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...
and
Mikhail Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life ...
. Other prominent guests included
Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
,
Zbigniew Cybulski Zbigniew Hubert Cybulski (; 3 November 1927 – 8 January 1967) was a Polish actor, one of the best-known and most popular personalities of the post-World War II history of Poland. Life Zbigniew Cybulski was born 3 November 1927 in a small vi ...
and
Jerzy Grotowski Jerzy Marian Grotowski (; 11 August 1933 – 14 January 1999) was a Polish theatre director and theorist whose innovative approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. He was born in Rze ...
. The hotel provided setting for a number of films including
Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the ...
's '' Ashes and Diamonds'',
Wojciech Has Wojciech Jerzy Has (1 April 1925, Kraków – 3 October 2000, Łódź) was a Polish film director, screenwriter and film producer. Early life and studies Wojciech Jerzy Has was born in Kraków. Has himself was agnostic. However, his family ...
's '' The Doll'' as well as a popular TV show '' More Than Life at Stake''. In 1984 the building was entered into Wrocław's register of monuments. The façade was given a facelift in 2008. Today the Monopol Hotel has two restaurants (one Polish and the other
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
), a spa and wellness club and organizes conferences and banquets. During
Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...
it hosted the Czech national team.


See also

* Monopol Hotel, Katowice *
History of Wrocław Wrocław (German: ''Breslau)'' has long been the largest and culturally dominant city in Silesia, and is today the capital of Poland's Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The history of Wrocław starts at a crossroads in Lower Silesia. It was one of the ...


References


External links


Monopol Hotel webpage
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