The new Prudential skyscraper seen above the trees of Plac Napoleona
The burnt-out shell of the Prudential tower after the Warsaw Uprising
The rebuilt tower, now Hotel Warszawa, at the end of the widened Świętokrzyska Street
Hotel Warszawa above Plac Powstańców Warszawy in the 1960s
Hotel Warszawa with its socialist-realist facade in the 1970s
The disused tower with an advertising banner on top, 2009
The renovated Hotel Warszawa seen from Plac Powstańców Warszawy
Built in 1931–1934 for the Prudential insurance company to a design by Marcin Weinfeld, the 66 m tower was one of the tallest buildings in pre-war Europe. During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising it was hit by heavy artillery and burnt out, but its steel frame survived. It was rebuilt by 1954 with a socialist-realist facade and reopened as Hotel Warszawa. After years of disuse it was renovated and reopened in 2018 as a luxury hotel that again shows its pre-war modernist lines.