The building at Sobieskiego 100 is an abandoned two blocks Soviet-style apartment complex in the district of Mokotów in Warsaw, Poland. Used by the USSR embassy employees during the communist era, the housing complex nicknamed “Spy City” has been abandoned for many years.
The apartments at 100 Sobieski Street in Warsaw were built under agreement with the USSR when Poland was part of the Soviet Bloc. The land-swap agreement was signed in 1974 and Poland handed a land to the USSR. The location of the site was quite “strategic” – the HQ of Poland’s General Staff was located nearby. The project was designed by the architects Piotr Sembrat and Janusz Nowak and property was built between 1977 and 1978.
Sobieskiego 100 was one of the first high-end apartment complexes in Poland and offered high living standard for Soviet diplomats. Luxurious by the standards of the times, its comforts included a sauna, gym, hairdresser, cinema, basketball court and dental clinic.
Built in close proximity to the Headquarters of Poland’s General Staff, it did not take long for locals to say that it was a spy base and name it the “Spyville”. Other urban legends says that Sobieskiego 100 was a safe house for the KGB, that it was home to a huge radio communication station and even that there were mysterious underground tunnels and its cellars were used as prison.
Its eye-catching design consists of three blocks, two of which rise in steps up to 11 storeys to make a pinnacle at the top. Some architecture fans fawn over it as a daring example of avant-garde modernism.
The building was abandoned with the fall of Iron Curtain in 1989, but but first the USSR and then Russia retained the property. In the mid-1990s the abandoned building was surrounded by barbed wire fences and trespassers were detected by remotely monitored CCTV. Despite this, homeless people often found shelter there.
Urbex Sobieskiego 100
Sobieskiego 100 has been an attractive location for urban explorers for years. They shared their thoughts on the condition of the complex, noting that some rooms were absolutely devastated by nature. At the end of the article we prepared collection of urbex pictures made inside abandoned building.
Urbex teams have been interested in this abandoned building for many years and have collected a lot of interesting stories. Some Polish urbex teams explored its interior from the inside and outside for several times. You can easily find their urban exploration videos on Youtube.
Legends about Sobieskiego 100
There are many legends about abandoned Sobieskiego 100 in Warsaw. Locals believed that it became the place where Soviet and later Russian spies went to gather information on Poland and other western countries. Some claim they saw antennas and radomes on top of the building for espionage and intercepting communications.
There were reports that abandoned building was used as a night club in the mid-2000s. Other says there is huge nuclear bunker under the Sobieskiego 100, which was designed as a bomb shelter in case of nuclear war.
Who owns the Sobieskiego 100 in Warsaw?
The ownership of the Sobieskiego 100 has been a cause of disputes between Poland and Russia for years. In 2008, Warsaw ended the agreement and demanded compensation, charging that Moscow had occupied the grounds illegally. As of May 2022, there were reports that Poland has seized an abandoned Russian diplomatic compound after decades of legal dispute.There are on-going talks of using it to host refugees.
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How To Get To the Abandoned Sobieskiego 100 in Warsaw?
Abandoned building on Sobieskiego 100 St. located in prestigious neighbourhood near downtown of Warsaw. The distance from Warsaw Chopin Airport to the Sobieskiego 100 is only 10 kilometers. The travel time from Warsaw airport to the building is around 20-25 minutes by car and S2 train. There are two buses whose route is connected to the downtown area of Warsaw: the 175 and the 188, both lasting for 20 minutes.
