He established a jurydyka (an administrative self-governing exclave of the city) and named the settlement Maryenstadt after his wife, adding the German suffix stadt to please the Saxon king of Poland.

The majority of the area's dwellings were wooden manors; several brick or stone tenement houses with red-terracotta roof tiles were owned by wealthier merchants.

In the 1860s, Samuel Orgelbrand established a printing presses at Bednarska Street, one of the most modern in Congress Poland; several other factories were set up in the vicinity which attracted more settlers.

Nevertheless, a large portion of the neighbourhood's population was poor, and the river embankment with neighbouring Powiśle and Solec remained a dilapidated and polluted slum until World War II.

[4] Since then, Mariensztat has experienced little development; almost all of the housing was built between 1948 and 1949 and is surrounded by extensive parklands, which makes it a low-density, green and more tranquil area unlike the rest of Warsaw.