Hala Koszyki, Warsaw

Hala Koszyki is a historic market hall and food hall, now combining dining, shops and offices. Its construction ran from 1906 to 1909, and the building was designed by Juliusz Dzierżanowski in the Art Nouveau tradition. The hall began trading in 1909.

Look at the carved ornament around the entrance wings: the decoration includes Warsaw’s mermaid, along with motifs drawn from animals and food. The original main hall measured 77 metres by 27 metres, and its steel frame supported purpose-built trading spaces, including marble counters for butchers, pools for fish sellers and chilled storage for grocers. This was a carefully engineered answer to the need for cleaner indoor trading.

The building suffered fire and heavy damage during the Second World War, but its steel frame kept the structure from collapsing. In 2009, most of the historic hall was dismantled, while the entrance wings and part of the street wall survived. Reconstruction followed, and the renewed venue reopened in October 2016 under a design by JEMS Architekci, with original structural elements brought back into the complex. Today, the hall’s historic shell frames restaurants, bars, bookstores and shops.