Rossiya Hotel

The enormous Rossiya in 2004

Demolition of Rossiya, February 3, 2007

The Rossiya Hotel (Russian: Россия ) was a large hotel built in Moscow from 1964 until 1967 at the order of the Soviet government. Construction used the existing foundations of a cancelled skyscraper project, the Zaryadye Administrative Building, which would have been the eighth of what is now referred to as the Seven Sisters. The architect was Dmitry Chechulin.

Large portions of a historic district of Moscow, known as Zaryadye, were demolished in the 1940s for the original project. It was registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest hotel in the world until it was surpassed by the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1993. It remained the largest hotel in Europe until its 2006 closure.

The 21-storey Rossiya had 3,200 rooms, 245 half suites, a post office, a health club, a nightclub, a movie theater and a barber shop as well as the 2500-seat State Central Concert Hall. The building was capable of accommodating over 4,000 guests. Most of the rooms were 11 square metres (120 sq ft), far smaller than most hotel rooms in the West. The hotel was adjacent to Red Square, its 21-storey tower looming over the Kremlin walls and the cupolas of Saint Basil's Cathedral.

Fire

On February 25, 1977, a huge fire in the building killed 42 and injured 50.

Demolition

The Rossiya Hotel officially closed its doors on January 1, 2006. Demolition of the building began in March 2006 for an entertainment complex loosely based on the design of the old Zaryadye district. The project is being overseen by British architect Sir Norman Foster and includes plans for a new, two thousand room hotel with apartments and a parking garage. In October 2006 the Supreme Arbitration Court has cancelled the results of a tender to reconstruct the Rossiya hotel near the Kremlin.

External links

• Detailed description of the Rossiya Hotel
• Article about the Rossiya Hotel shortly before closure