Rynek Starego Miasta 2 — the Bornbach House

The earliest known mention of this place dates from 1449. A wooden house stood here then, belonging to Mikołaj Bornbach, a Warsaw goldsmith. The owner passed it on to his son Jerzy, and around 1451 a brick house was erected on the plot.

At first the house was much smaller than it is today. During the 16th century it was gradually extended deeper into the plot, further rooms were added, and the cellars were rebuilt and vaulted.

The former plot did not end with the building seen from the square. Its structures continued towards the city walls and today's Brzozowa Street. For this reason the property is also linked with the address Brzozowa 5.

In 1607 the great fire of Old Warsaw destroyed a large part of the town. The Bornbach house burned down as well.

After reconstruction a four-storey house with three room bays appeared, with a narrow passage in the middle and a three-axis façade facing the square. The side elevation on Celna Street carried an oriel window. Today's oriel is a reconstruction, yet it recalls the form given to the building in the 17th century.

Between 1704 and 1743 the house belonged to the Winkler family. Their name gave the building its second historical name — the Winkler House.

In the middle of the 18th century the property passed into the hands of Lithuanian Jesuits. Between 1752 and 1773 they rebuilt the interiors and adapted the building to serve as a boarding house. The building was raised in height, the Celna Street elevation was unified and a new staircase was built. From that period comes the popular name „Klasztorek”, meaning the Little Monastery.

One of the best-known stories linked with this address concerns the priest Piotr Skarga. Before 1918 a plaque dedicated to him hung above the portal, and the building was presented as his former home.

Modern studies, however, describe that attribution as mistaken or unconfirmed. There is not enough evidence that the royal preacher actually lived here.

The tradition nevertheless left a clear trace in the memory of the city. The house was shown as Skarga's home in paintings and on postcards. The post-war decoration of the façade also includes a depiction of his head.

In 1928, during a wider campaign of decorating the houses of the Old Town Market Square, the façade was covered with a polychrome painting by Leonard Pękalski.

Before the war the property was associated in turn with the Policyjny Dom Zdrowia (Police Health House) and the Stowarzyszenie Polski Dom Zdrowia (Polish Health House Association).

During the fighting and the subsequent destruction of the Old Town in 1944 the house was almost completely ruined.

What survived were above all the medieval and early modern cellars, a fragment of the wall on the side of the neighbouring house number 4, and parts of the 17th-century entrance portal.

Today's building is largely a post-war reconstruction, yet it also contains authentic elements of the earlier structure.

The part of the house facing the square was rebuilt in 1951–1953 to a design by Anna Boye-Guerquin. The historic massing and elevations were recreated, while the interiors were largely designed anew.

The upper part of the façade was decorated in 1953 with sgraffito by Hanna and Jacek Żuławski. Among the decorations is the head of Piotr Skarga, a reminder of the old tradition connected with the building.

The wing facing Brzozowa Street was rebuilt between 1956 and 1961. During the works the remains of the former Brama Gnojna (Dung Gate) were put on display; it once closed the axis of Celna Street and formed part of the city's fortifications.

The most authentic fragments of the house survive in the cellars. A large part of them dates from the 15th and 16th centuries.

These are barrel-vaulted rooms with old stairs leading towards the square, recesses, and a small window on the Celna Street side.

The cellars are a reminder that beneath the façade recreated after the war there are still material traces of medieval Warsaw.

In 1953 the Staromiejski Dom Kultury, the Old Town Cultural Centre, began its activity in the rebuilt house.

Over the following decades concerts, exhibitions, performances, literary meetings and debates took place here. Theatre, jazz, literary and visual arts circles were all connected with the institution.

The house, which for centuries had been home to burghers, monks and municipal institutions, became a place open to culture and artistic work.