The Warsaw Marriott: first of a kind
The Warsaw Marriott Hotel was one of the first five stars hotels and to my parents’ generation it is the symbol of luxury.
Very few skyscrapers in Warsaw are as emblematic as the building in which the Warsaw Marriott hotel is located. It is one of the first really tall buildings in the capital. It is not surprising then that it is accommodating a five-star Marriott hotel. Next year, the building and the hotel itself will be celebrating their 30th birthday, and today I will treat you with some trivia about it.
A very long construction project
Last years of the seventies are referred to as “the era of late Gierek”. It was then, when after a few years of relative prosperity and living off borrowed money, Polish socialist economy started suffering from shortness of breath. That’s why, when construction works began in 1977, from the very beginning it was a steep road ahead. At that time, it was difficult to build repetitive blocks of flats with prefabricated concrete, let alone a 140-meter building which was quite a technical challenge for the team that was working on it. It took 12 years to complete the project.
The first such hotel in Warsaw
When the Marriott’s construction was starting, Warsaw already had another five-star facility – the “Victoria” hotel on the then Zwycięstwa Square (today Piłsudskiego Square), but the Marriott was a completely different story. Using floors from the 20th up, the hotel offered its guests not only 523 rooms (including a presidential suite), 16 conference rooms, fitness, sauna, swimming pool and several restaurants, but above all, amazing views.
Andrzej Rosiewicz and food supply shortages
The Marriott Hotel was opened in 1989 after the June parliamentary election. During its inauguration sang Andrzej Rosiewicz, one of the greatest Polish stars of that time. Rumour has it that at the opening party there were… 2,000 people instead of the invited 500. This multiplication of guests required chefs working on the party to come up with some tricks. Anyway, the first years of hotel restaurants were equally difficult – several thousand people were eating at the Marriott every day. Getting enough products for so many people was the closest thing to a miracle.
Famous hotel guests
During 29 years of its history, the Marriott hotel has welcomed many outstanding guests. Among people who stayed there you get the king of pop Michael Jackson, Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, and even former US presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. However, some guests preferred to admire the hotel from the outside than from the inside – I mean the famous French “Spider Man”, aka Alain Robert, who in 1999 climbed to the top of the building without a belay or the Pole Dawid Kaszlikowski, who he repeated the Frenchman’s achievement the same year.
One thing is certain – the years pass and the Marriott is invariably a symbol of luxury and the highest hotel quality.
