A 90-Year-Old Pavilion Gets Its Most Fitting Role Yet
For nearly nine decades, the round pavilion on Wrocław's Kościuszki Square has cycled through identities: tourist office, bookshop, toy shop, kiosk, café. Through all of it, including the destruction that levelled much of the square during the 1945 siege of Festung Breslau, the small building survived intact. Now, as whiteMAD first reported on 25 August 2026, the Okrąglak has opened as the tenth branch of Chleboteka, a Wrocław bakery brand celebrating its own tenth anniversary.
From Tauentzienplatz to Kościuszki Square
The pavilion was designed by architect Paul Heim and opened in early June 1934, when the square still carried its German name. Heim is also associated with the design of Wrocław's Sępolno district. Before the war, the building served as a tourist information point where visitors could purchase guidebooks, airline tickets and theatre reservations. Its circular form made it a natural landmark, and for generations of residents it has accumulated layers of personal memory.
How Chleboteka and CUDO Approached the Interior
Two Wrocław-based brands, Chleboteka and design studio CUDO, collaborated on the conversion. Because the building sits within a conservation area, any changes to its exterior required consultation with the conservation officer and formal documentation. The refreshed colour scheme on the outside was handled within those constraints.
Inside, the designers used the pavilion's own geometry as the organising principle. Arched and circular motifs repeat across the counter, furniture, ceiling details and fittings. The material palette draws on 20th-century architectural references: veneer, ornamental glass, steel and patterned flooring inspired by historic Polish interiors, including Warsaw's traditional 'gorseciki' and 'czeczota' tile designs. Warm lighting was chosen specifically to flatter the colour of bread and baked goods while making the compact space feel intimate rather than cramped.
Practical constraints were significant. Within the limited floor area, the architects had to accommodate a sales counter, bread display, coffee preparation station, back-of-house facilities, a storeroom and staff rooms. A suspended circular ceiling conceals the ventilation and air-conditioning systems, keeping the geometry clean. An additional bread display was mounted above the main counter to make the most of vertical space.
Large windows were introduced to dissolve the visual boundary between the interior and the square outside. A circular bench wrapping around the exterior of the pavilion extends the usable space outward, giving visitors a place to sit in the public realm.
A Milestone for the Brand
The Okrąglak outlet carries extra meaning for Chleboteka. According to the investor, the location was identified as a potential site from the very beginning of the brand's operations. The opening of this branch coincides with Chleboteka's tenth anniversary, making it both the tenth outlet and a symbolic full-circle moment for the company.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent accommodation operators in central Wrocław now have a genuinely story-rich recommendation to offer guests. The Okrąglak's layered history, its survival of wartime destruction, its parade of uses across nine decades, and its careful contemporary restoration give hosts something more interesting to share than a generic café tip. Pointing guests toward Kościuszki Square also anchors them in one of the city's most walkable areas, which benefits any property nearby. For hosts who curate local guides or welcome notes, the Chleboteka opening is the kind of detail that turns a functional list into a memorable one.
Details were first reported by whiteMAD, with photography by Migdał Studio and source information from Chleboteka and CUDO. This post is published by the Qontaktly travel blog.
First reported by whitemad.pl.