Hotels (entry)

Categories / City Services/Housing and Communal Services
HOTELS. In St. Petersburg's early years, visitors stayed at hostelries, taverns or with acquaintances. With the spread of commerce, there appeared "guest yards", or visitor's complexes, in front of which merchants sold goods. One of the first St. Petersburg hotels was the Grand Hotel Paris, opened in 1804 at 23/8 Malaya Morskaya Street. Throughout the 19th century, cheap inns appeared, as did furnished rooms, mainly in the city centre. Regulations for Hotels, Restaurants, Coffee Houses, Taverns and Cook-Shops were announced in 1821. As a rule, well-to-do persons stayed at hotels; the hotels had restaurants which were open to guests and to the public. In the early 19 century, the 1st European Hotel in St. Petersburg, located on Palace Square at the Kusovnikov Residence, was opened by Tardif, the victualler immortalized by A.S. Pushkin. French writer G. de Stael stayed in the hotel in 1812. In 1894, there were 40 hotels in St. Petersburg; by 1917, the number had grown to 120. After October 1917, most hotels were closed down, and only the Evropeiskaya, the Bolshaya Severnaya (see Oktyabrskaya) and the Astoria remained. In 1925, there were 7 hotels and 6 bunkhouses in Leningrad. In 1929, Primorskaya, the first Soviet hotel, was built. In 1940, there were 10 hotels and a Peasants’ House in Leningrad. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, hotels were used as hospitals and 24-hour clinics for Leningraders suffering form dystrophia. After the War, hotels were developed mainly from reorganised dormitories (e.g., Turist, Sputnik, and Zanevskaya hotels). By the early 1960s, the Kievskaya, Zarya, Vyborgskaya, and Ladoga hotels were built according to typical Soviet hotel projects; the Russia Hotel (1962, architect B.N. Zhuravlev, P.A. Areshev, V.E. Struzman), Leningrad Hotel, and Moscow Hotel were designed according to individual projects. In early 1960s, the Sovetskaya Hotel was built at the corner of Lermontovsky Avenue and the Fontanka River Embankment by architect E.A. Levinson. It is a 19-story building free of architectural superfluities, with a long, added 5-story block covered with expanded-clay tiles and light dolomite. The first section of the hotel, holding 1,700 guests, was opened in 1968. In 1970, the first section of the Leningrad Hotel (today known as St. Petersburg Hotel; architects S.B. Speransky, V.E. Struzman, engineer E.M. Izrail) opened along the Vyborgskaya Embankment, boasting the time's best equipment and furniture. The winter garden had a bar where one could use cash. A two-story restaurant was located in a fully glazed cylindrical addition (the upper floor housed the Petrovsky Hall, and the Kanatny Bar for VIPs was located on the bottom floor). For the first time, all-you-can-eat buffets, continental breakfasts and floor bars appeared in Russia, and were set up in the hotel for foreign tourists. Theatrical cabaret performances shown here were popular among city residents. In the 1970s, several hotels were consolidated, and the Zarya, Zanevskaya, Moskovskaya, and Severnaya hotels became parts of other hotel chains. By the time of the Olympic Games of 1980, six new hotels had been opened, including the Gavan (88, Sredny Ave. of Vasilievsky Island) which featured unconventional crenellate facades (1980; architect Chernov M.V., engineer N.I. Karpina). To improve the comfort level of hotels for foreign visitors, foreign companies were invited to help develop and design the hotels (see Pribaltiiskaya). In 1981, the Pulkovskaya Hotel was built at Pobedy Square (architect S.B. Speransky, V.S. Volonsevich). In 1990, there were about 70 hotels in Leningrad, (including hotels near markets and the camping motel in Olgino), with a total capacity of 30,000 people. By 2002, there were 135 hotels in St. Petersburg, ready to welcome 35,000 guests. Five of them are 5 stars hotels (Corinthia Nevskij Palace, Grand Hotel Europe, Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, Angleterre, and Astoria, with a total capacity of 2,000), 40 middle class hotels (St. Petersburg Hotel and Moscow Hotel, both of which can accommodate 14,000 people), and 44 economy-class, 2-star hotels accommodating 7,000 guests. There are also some departmental hotels and dormitories.

Reference: Богданов И. А. Старейшие гостиницы Петербурга. СПб., 2001.

I. A. Bogdanov. Areshev Peter Artemievich
Chernov Mikhail Vsevolodovich
Izrail E.M.
Karpina N.I.
Levinson Evgeny Adolfovich
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Speransky Sergey Borisovich
Stael Anne Louise Germaine de
Struzman Viktoria Emmanuilovna
Tardif
Volonsevich Valerian Stepanovich
Zhuravlev Boris Nikolaevich
Dvortsovaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Lermontovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 23/8
Sredny Ave of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 88
Vyborgskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Богданов И. А. Старейшие гостиницы Петербурга. СПб., 2001 Grand Hotel Europe
Pribaltiiskaya Hotel
Astoria Hotel
Moscow, Hotel
Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel
Radisson SAS Royal Hotel
Angleterre Hotel
1804
1970
1977
1981