It all began here. Measuring a meager 51.5-meters, today the 11-storey PASTa barely registers on Warsaw’s horizon - but that wasn’t always the case. Recognized as Warsaw’s first skyscraper, when it was completed in 1908 it became Europe’s tallest building - albeit for a paltry two years.

First housing the Swedish telephone firm Cedergen, it acquired its current name in 1922 when it was taken over by the telecommunications firm Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna (PAST). Its finest hour lay around the corner. Considered a strategic target by insurgents fighting in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, it was finally seized by Polish forces following 20-days of savage floor-by-floor combat.

Initially modeled on the great castles of medieval Europe, after the war it was restored minus the crenellations that once topped its roof.

Prudential

Enjoying its newfound independence, inter-war Warsaw needed a statement structure to signify Poland’s return to the world map, and the Prudential building was it. Inspired by the transatlantic skyscrapers trending in New York and Chicago, when the 16-storey Prudential opened in 1933 it became the highest building in Poland.

Its height was a boon. Aside from housing offices for the Prudential insurance group on the lower floors, and luxury apartments higher up, 1936 saw a transmitter added to the roof and it was through this that Poland’s first televised broadcasts were channeled.

Its defining moment came during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Captured on the first day of battle by insurgents, the sight of the Polish flag fluttering from the capital’s tallest building is said to have left many weeping with joy. The Germans responded by hammering the building with over 1,000 rounds of artillery over the course of the 63-day battle - its hefty 1,500-ton steel skeleton refused to buckle, and the Germans only retook it once the capitulation act was signed.

Seen as one of the capital’s few examples of the Art Deco, 2018 saw it reopened as the stylish Hotel Warszawa.

Palace of Culture & Science

Relinquishing its crown as Poland’s tallest building in 2021 - a title it had held for 66-years - the Palace of Culture nonetheless continues to define the city’s skyline. Gifted to Poland by Stalin, for years many interpreted its towering presence as a symbol of Soviet hegemony - ‘a tyrannical phallus,’, some called it.

Looking like it could belong in Gotham City, the building’s mere existence has often left Warsaw bitterly divided and every few years, calls for its demolition are invariably voiced. In spite of the emotions it arouses, few can deny that it remains one of Europe’s most striking examples of the Socialist Realist style.

The stats alone astound: built using 40 million bricks, and containing 3,288 rooms, this 42-floor beast never fails but to awe. This aside, it’s also home to some of Warsaw’s wildest urban legends - to this day, stories swirl of secret tunnels running to the former Communist Party HQ, and forgotten chambers filled with vodka bought to pay The Rolling Stones when they performed back in 1967.

What is known as fact, is the palace’s reliance on cats to keep it free of rodents. Moving in before even the first human tenants, over 60 felines once guarded the palace, a number that’s since dwindled to a modest eleven.

The Forum Hotel

Now trading as the Novotel, when the Forum opened in 1974 it instantly became Warsaw’s most luxurious hotel - a 96-meter behemoth designed by the eminent Swedish architect Sten Samelson. Not all were happy, however. So unorthodox was the mustard-brownish facade, that the oblong building was soon nicknamed ‘the chocolate bar’. With barely concealed rage, author Jerzy Waldorff slammed it as Sweden’s overdue revenge for their defeat at the 1656 Battle of Częstochowa.

But detractors be damned, as Poland’s first ‘Western-style’ skyscraper the Forum attracted stars such as ABBA. Visiting Poland in 1976 to perform at TVP’s Woronicza studios (a performance that the Polish state reportedly bartered in exchange for trainloads of canned peas), the band’s arrival at the Forum saw them mobbed by adoring fans.

A thorough revamp in 2005 saw the building’s skin replaced with silvery panels designed by French architect Yves Lagache, and while Warsaw now boasts more spectacular architectural statements, today the skyscraper remains a towering testament to Poland’s bold ambition to ‘modernize’ during the 1970s.

The Blue Tower

Warsaw’s porridge of architectural styles are at their most clashing on Plac Bankowy, a gridlocked plot framed by panel blocks and restored pre-war glories. Then, adding to the imbalance, is ‘the Blue Tower’.

Seen as a gargantuan slab of mirrored glass, construction of this 120-meter skyscraper began in the 1960s only to be halted when the economy collapsed. For years it loomed over the square as an incomplete skeleton. Twenty-six years after work began, it was finally completed in 1992, but only after a rabbi had allegedly lifted a hex that had been placed on the land.

Previously, this patch had been the site of Warsaw’s Great Synagogue, and the very epicenter of the capital’s Jewish community. Blown up by the Germans in 1943 to ‘celebrate’ their brutal suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, city legend has it that an ancient Jewish curse was cast to prevent the land from ever being built on.

In a city of such complex history and confused aesthetics, there is something about the Blue Tower that feels almost representative of Warsaw.

Centrum LIM

Recently vacated by its most famous tenant - the Marriott Hotel - the Centrum LIM has played a prominent role in Polish history, despite only opening in 1989. Topping out at 140-meters, it came to be regarded as an island of American-style prosperity during the early years of Poland’s political transition, and as such attracted throngs of Western advisors seeking to put the country on the road to riches.

Nicknamed ‘the Marriott Brigade,’, the diplomats, decision-makers and management figures that gathered here occupied a central role in hauling Poland from its economic torpor.

Not all guests were as faceless. Enticed by a split-level, 260 sq/m Presidential Suite, visitors included German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (who had to abruptly leave after receiving news that the Berlin Wall was falling), Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Jackson and Taylor Swift (a point disputed by some insiders who claim the pop princess simply used the Marriott as a diversion before actually staying in the InterContinental down the road).

Most famously of all, however, it is the building’s connection with the American presidency that most will know it for. Hosting Bush Sr. and Jr., Clinton, Obama, Trump and Biden, it has been integral to bridging Polish-American relations in the post-Communist world.

Złota 44

When the Polish-born ‘starchitect’ Daniel Liebeskind revealed plans for Europe’s tallest residential project both the public and press were left fawning over renderings of a sleek, sail-shaped tower piercing the skies. The reality, however, proved a little underwhelming.

Taking nine years to officially open due to legal disputes and an interval foisted by the credit crunch, Złota 44 finally unfurled the welcome mat in 2017. Among the celebrity key holders was football superstar Robert Lewandowski. But despite the luxuries within, the building was criticized for its lumpen aesthetics and ‘plasticky’ facade. Though these misgivings can still be heard from some quarters, attitudes have softened with time and Złota 44 has become an unmistakable feature of Warsaw’s silhouette.

In 2022, Złota 44 was back in the news when the cryptocurrency speculator Rafał Zaorski bought a 50th floor apartment for 22 million złotys - then a record for a Polish single story apartment. A year later, Zaorski was back in the headlines after announcing that he was selling 20,000 ‘keys’ to the 485 sq/m apartment for 5,000 złotys a piece.

Billed as a cross between “a social experiment and an epic flip,”, the project was abandoned over summer after it prompted a fierce backlash from residents and the building’s management.

Warsaw Spire

Of all the unlikely transformations Warsaw has seen, it is perhaps the rebirth of the Wola district that has been the most thrilling - once presenting a bleak picture of dereliction, today this western swathe of Warsaw has been revived as a dynamic business district peppered with rich after-work attractions.

While the decision to build a second metro line through this area is recognized as the biggest factor in its regeneration, the 2016 unmasking of the Warsaw Spire shouldn’t rank too far behind. While Wola had welcomed skyscrapers before, this 220-meter masterpiece became a beacon for Warsaw’s corporate credentials and paved the way for the developments that came after. To this day, it feels like the area’s natural anchoring point.

Varso Tower

When the Varso Tower opened in 2022, it didn’t just surpass the Palace of Culture to become Poland’s tallest building, but every other building in the EU as well. Measuring 310-meters, the 500 million euro project has won praise for an elegant, understated design that’s at odds with some of Warsaw’s more ‘expressive’ buildings. While this has irked those that expected something with a little more pizzazz from the design team, Foster + Partners, that its mere presence has lent Warsaw added clout in the business world isn’t to be disputed.

Thinking beyond the corporate angle, the viewing platforms on the 49th and 53rd floors stand to become an A-list tourist attraction when they open in summer, 2025.