This building looks like a tower stacked with Jenga blocks, was one of the most modern department stores, and became a Mister Warsaw in 1980. Now the Uniwersus Central Department Store at 22 Belwederska Street in Warsaw has become a monument!
It looks like there won't be a repeat of the demolition of Warsaw's Supersam - the Preservation Offices are learning lessons from the mistakes of the past and are increasingly appreciating the heritage of social-modern architecture. In recent years, monuments have become monuments, including the famous Pyramids in Ustroń, Katowice's Spodek and Warsaw Central Station. On July 9, 2025, the Mazovian Provincial Conservator of Monuments announced that another architectural gem of Warsaw modernism - the Central Department Store "Uniwersus" at 20/22 Belwederska Street in Ursynów - has been entered in the register ! Why exactly did it become the subject of the entry?
Central Department Store "Dom Książki Uniwersus" in 2023
Photo: Emptywords © CC BY-SA 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons
a brutalist rarity
The "Uniwersus" Central Department Store "House of Books" was designed by Leszek Solonowicz in cooperation with Ryszard Lisiewicz and Arkadiusz Starski, as well as Wiktor Humięcki, Zbigniew Lupa and Jan Laskowski, who were responsible for the engineering side of the project. Initially, it was to be an exhibition pavilion showcasing Soviet technical thought (at the time, in 1972, the project was developed by Leszek Solonowicz with Janusz Pukaczewski and Jerzy Semeniuk), but eventually, after a second version of the project was created, it was built as a commercial pavilion that housed one of the most modern bookstores in Poland at the time. The concept was developed in the first half of the 1970s, and the finished building opened its doors to Varsovians in 1980. It is one of the few examples of Brutalist buildings in Poland, and it still stands out from the crowd.
Central Department Store "Dom Książki Uniwersus".
© Mazovian Provincial Conservator of Monuments
granite, communication and construction logic
The building, which looks like a "witch's hut" on a crow's foot, has attracted interest from the very beginning. The building consists of a heavy, one-story "base," an inscribed square block with communication functions, and a pavilion perched on top of the entire structure. Thanks to its steel structure, the pavilion was able to be erected using column-free technology. Horizontal windows girding the rectangular pavilion are obscured by light breakers in the form of vertical and horizontal razor blades. Emphasizing the logic of the structure, the sculptural, geometric form and facades finished in syenite give the building a distinctly Brutalist character.
Central Department Store "Uniwersus Book House".
© Mazovian Provincial Conservator of Monuments
A breath of modernity in Ursynów
Not only was the shape of Uniwersus innovative, but also the way shopping was done there. Today we are accustomed to browsing on our own for book items we are interested in purchasing. In the 1970s, similar practices were just emerging in multi-volume department stores, including Warsaw's Supersam. The ability to choose a book from among the many volumes on the shelf was something in Uniwersus that one could not find in vain in other bookstores. Importantly, there were more than just books to choose from - the National Book House also offered vinyl records for sale, in addition to a meeting place, an exhibition room and also a café. The interiors lined with stone and wood, with aluminum ceilings, were designed by Włodzimierz Kaczmarczyk.
Central Department Store "Uniwersus Book House" - interiors
© Mazovian Provincial Conservator of Monuments
undoubted monument
With regard to outstanding buildings built in recent decades, it is not uncommon for doubts to arise regarding their monumental status. Although the architecture of socmodernism is appreciated in increasingly wide circles, for a large part of society it is still primarily a trigger of negative associations, associated with life under the previous regime. Fortunately, in the case of Uniwersus, similar doubts were dispelled by Marcin Dawidowicz, who entered the building in the register. As the profile of the Mazovian Regional Historic Preservation Officer explains:
"As a relatively late development (1980), "Universus" is considered one of the last such significant buildings in Warsaw maintained in the spirit of modernism (rigorism of geometric divisions) and one of the few examples of the Polish interpretation of brutalism (monumentalism of the mass, austerity of form, conscious anti-aestheticism). Thus, the building is a work of a closed era, both from the point of view of stylistic solutions (post-war modernism) and from the historical point of view (service construction of the socialist era).
Interiors of the Uniwersus Book House
© National Digital Archive
The Warsaw Book House is not only one of the last important modernist developments in the capital, but also the winner of the latest edition of Mister Warsaw - a title awarded by the capital's monthly Życie Warszawy since 1956. This important award has been given to, among others, the Central Railway Station in Warsaw, the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Medical Academy and the Children's Health Center in Międzylesie. Mister Warsaw is not the only award Uniwersus has received, by the way. While still in the design stage, it was recognized in the 1975 Cube of the Year competition.
Central Department Store "House of Books Uniwersus".
© Mazovian Provincial Conservator of Monuments
What's next for Uniwersus?
With its entry in the Register of Historic Places, a new chapter opens before "Uniwersus". However, this does not mean that it will be strewn with positive developments. Although owners of historic buildings are obliged to keep them in good condition, practice shows that this is not always the case. In today's economy, buildings devoid of function are unfortunately often doomed to slow degradation - such was the case, for example, with Warsaw's Cepelia Pavilion, which was deteriorating until Empik, the new owner of the building, took charge of its renovation. Today we know that the National Book House will not be demolished or substantially rebuilt (although one of the owners had such plans in the past, when the building was removed from the Municipal Register of Historic Places). Now at 22 Belwederska Street there are offices and service outlets, but due to neglect and lack of modernization, the space of the unusual pavilion is getting older and older. Will there be a reason for Uniwersus to delight again, as befits a Mister Warsaw?
