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The Metropol hotel is a historic hotel in the center of Moscow,
built in 1899-1907 in the art Nouveau style. It is noteworthy that
this is the largest preserved hotel in Moscow, built before the 1917
revolution. This beautiful building is the product of a unique
collaboration between architects William Walcott, Lev Kekushev,
Vladimir Shukhov and artists Mikhail Vrubel, Alexander Golovin, and
Nikolai Andreev.
In 1898, Savva Mamontov and Petersburg
Insurance bought up most of the land around the former Chelyshev
hotel. Mamontov, a Manager and sponsor of a private Opera house,
started to transform the square into a large cultural center built
around the Opera hall. In 1898, a professional jury of an open
competition chose the work of Lev Kekushev, however, Mamontov
intervened and appointed a new English architect, William Walcott,
who proposed an improved project in the art Nouveau style.
Subsequently, Mamontov hired Kekushev as a construction Manager.
Soon after, Savva Mamontov was jailed for fraud, and the project was
taken over by Petersburg insurance, dropping the original plans to
the Opera hall.
In 1901, the top facing burned down and had
to be rebuilt from scratch in reinforced concrete. Kekushev and
walcot hired a constellation of first-year artists, including
Mikhail Vrubel to create the Princess of Dreams mosaic panel,
Alexander Golovin to create a small ceramic panel, and sculptor
Nikolai Andreev to finish the plaster friezes. The Metropol hotel
was completed in 1907. However, it is quite far from the original
walcot design.
In 1918, the hotel was nationalized by the
Bolshevik administration, and the hotel was renamed the Second house
of Soviets. The first house of Soviets was the national hotel. It
housed the living quarters and offices of the growing Soviet
bureaucracy. It was eventually converted to its original hotel
function in the 1930s and underwent a major restoration in 1986-1991
by Finnish companies as part of bilateral trade between the USSR and
Finland. Today, the "Metropol" has 365 rooms, each of which has a
special shape or decoration.
The Hotel Metropol's story begins in the late 1890s, rooted in the
ambitious vision of Russian industrialist and arts patron Savva
Mamontov. Mamontov, who owned Russia's first private opera company,
initially conceived the project as a grand "palace of the arts" in the
heart of Moscow, directly across from the Bolshoi Theatre. His plan
included a massive complex featuring a 3,000-seat auditorium, art
galleries, a luxurious hotel, and a first-class restaurant. To realize
this, Mamontov partnered with the Petersburg Insurance company and
consolidated land around the former Chelyshev Hotel in 1898. The project
blended cultural ambition with commercial enterprise, aiming to create a
hub for Moscow's elite and artistic community.
Construction began in
1899, with Scottish-Russian architect William Walcot leading the design
in the Art Nouveau (or "Style Moderne") style, which was gaining
popularity in Europe. Walcot collaborated with Russian architects like
Lev Kekushev and a team of prominent artists, including Mikhail Vrubel
(who created the iconic majolica panel "Princess of Dreams" on the
facade), Nikolai Andreyev, and Alexander Golovin. These artists infused
the building with elements drawn from Russian folklore, vibrant
ceramics, mosaics, and stained glass, making it a masterpiece of
decorative art. However, the project faced early setbacks: in 1899,
Mamontov was arrested on embezzlement charges (later acquitted but
financially ruined), forcing the Petersburg Insurance company to take
over. A devastating fire in 1901 destroyed much of the partially built
structure, delaying progress and requiring redesigns.
Completion
and Grand Opening (1905)
Despite the challenges, the hotel was
completed in 1905 (though some sources note final touches extending to
1907). It opened its doors in January 1905 amid revolutionary unrest in
Russia, which forced Tsar Nicholas II to concede constitutional reforms
later that year. The Metropol set a new standard for luxury in Moscow,
becoming the city's first hotel to offer modern amenities like electric
lighting, hot running water, telephones in every room, elevators, and
international cuisine. It also featured an American-style bar off the
lobby, drawing cosmopolitan travelers, artists, and the local elite. The
building's facade, with its colorful majolica tiles and asymmetrical
design, quickly made it a landmark on Theatre Square.
From 1905 to
1917, the Metropol thrived as a social and cultural epicenter. It hosted
glamorous events, performances, and gatherings for Moscow's well-to-do.
Notable early guests included celebrities, politicians, and
intellectuals, establishing its reputation as a "stomping ground" for
the glamorous. The hotel's restaurant and bar became hotspots, blending
European sophistication with Russian flair.
Revolution and the
Soviet Era (1917–1930s)
The Russian Revolution of 1917 dramatically
altered the Metropol's fate. In early 1918, as the Bolshevik government
relocated from Petrograd to Moscow, the hotel was nationalized and
repurposed as the "Second House of Soviets." It served as temporary
housing and offices for senior Bolshevik officials, including key
figures like Lenin, who reportedly addressed crowds from its balcony.
The once-luxurious rooms became bureaucratic workspaces, and the
building witnessed pivotal moments, such as the sending of the telegram
ordering the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1918.
During the 1920s, the Metropol continued as a government hub amid the
chaos of civil war and famine. By the late 1920s, as the Soviet regime
stabilized, plans emerged to restore its hotel function. It reopened to
the public as a hotel in 1931, though under state control, catering to
foreign diplomats, journalists, and visitors. This period saw it host
espionage activities and underground scenes, including a notorious
public urinal behind the hotel that became a clandestine meeting spot
for Moscow's gay community in the 1950s (as noted in accounts of British
spy Guy Burgess). The hotel's Art Nouveau features were preserved, but
its role shifted to symbolize Soviet hospitality for international
guests.
World War II and the "Red Hotel" (1941–1945)
During
World War II, the Metropol gained a new layer of notoriety as a press
center for foreign journalists covering the Eastern Front. In 1941, as
Nazi forces approached Moscow, the hotel housed British and American
correspondents under tight Soviet control. It became known as the "Red
Hotel," where propaganda, censorship, and surveillance were rampant.
Journalists like those from The New York Times and BBC lived and worked
there, enduring air raids and extreme cold (temperatures dropped below
-35°C in the winter of 1941). A downed German bomber was even displayed
in front of the hotel as a propaganda trophy. The Metropol's staff,
including waiters and maids, were often NKVD informants, turning the
building into a hub of intrigue and controlled information flow.
Post-War Years and Renovations (1945–1991)
After the war, the
Metropol reverted to its role as a premier hotel, attracting
celebrities, politicians, and spies during the Cold War. It hosted
figures like American singer Paul Robeson, French philosopher Jean-Paul
Sartre, and even served as a backdrop for diplomatic events. However, by
the 1980s, the building had deteriorated, reflecting the broader decline
of Soviet infrastructure.
A major turning point came in 1991,
following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The hotel underwent
extensive renovations, modernizing facilities while preserving its
historical elements. It became one of Russia's first five-star hotels
and joined international chains, regaining its luxury status.
Modern Era and Cultural Legacy (1991–Present)
Since 2012, the
Metropol has been owned by Russian businessman Alexander Klyachin, who
has invested in further modernization, including room updates and the
addition of fine-dining options like the SAVVA restaurant and Shalyapin
bar (named after opera singer Feodor Chaliapin, an early patron). The
hotel remains a protected cultural monument, with its original Art
Nouveau interiors, mosaics, and historic suites intact. It has inspired
literature, notably Amor Towles' 2016 novel A Gentleman in Moscow, which
fictionalizes a count's house arrest there from 1922 onward,
highlighting its role in Russian history.
Today, the Metropol stands
as Moscow's largest pre-revolutionary hotel, blending its storied past
with contemporary luxury. It has witnessed revolutions, wars, and
cultural shifts, hosting everyone from Bolshevik leaders to modern
celebrities like kings, politicians, and artists. Its facade and
interiors continue to draw visitors, symbolizing Russia's turbulent
20th-century history and enduring elegance.
"Metropol
"is considered to be one of the most striking historical and
architectural monuments of art Nouveau in Moscow. A whole galaxy of
famous and talented architects and artists worked on the creation of
the hotel complex. In addition to William Valkot, Lev Kekushev and
Nikolai Shevyakov, architects P. p. Visnevsky, S. S. Shutsman, V. V.
Voeikov, S. P. Galenzovsky, V. I. Rubanov, M. M. Peretyatkovich, I.
A. German, P. Vulsky, A. Erichson, V. Vesnin, I. Zholtovsky and
(presumably) F. Shechtel participated in the interior design. Murals
and elements of the interior decor were made according to the
sketches of V. Vasnetsov and K. Korovin. Unlike the facades, which
are designed in strict stylistic unity, the interior decoration is
characterized by polystylism: there are interiors in the
pseudo-Russian style, and in the spirit of Neoclassicism.
The
architectural appearance of the "Metropol" is characterized by
strict lines. Elements of pseudo-Gothic (turrets, pinacles) can be
seen through the techniques typical of modernity. The ground floor,
faced with red granite and solved in the form of an arcade,
contrasts with the plastered smooth upper floors, giving the massive
structure an airiness. To visually facilitate the extended facades,
a carefully designed division is used both vertically — with
numerous protrusions, including risalites and Bay Windows, and
horizontally — with an openwork ribbon of balcony grating covering
the entire Central facade. The architect M. M. Peretyatkovich
participated in the decorative finishing of the hotel facades and in
the creation of the drawing of the balcony grating.
According
to Savva Mamontov, when creating the hotel, special attention should
have been paid to the artistic design of the building. As a
passionate promoter of the work of his artist friends, Mamontov
wanted to use the facades of a building in the center of Moscow to
perpetuate the works of a new direction in art. Not least of all,
this circumstance influenced the preference of the Valkot project
over others — it was more adapted for artistic additions. It is also
important that Mamontov's favorite brainchild was the Abramtsevo
ceramic workshop: panels for the "Metropol"were made here. Its
facades are decorated with majolica panels, the most famous of which
is the Princess of Dreams, based on a painting by Mikhail Vrubel; it
occupies a Central place on the main facade of the hotel. Several
other majolica panels were made based on sketches by Alexander
Golovin and Sergey Chekhonin — "Thirst", "Worship of the deity",
"Worship of nature", "Life", "Naiad bathing", "worship of
antiquity"and " Noon". The sculptural frieze "Seasons" encircling
the building was made by Nikolai Andreev.
The hotel
"Metropol" was perceived by its contemporaries as an embodied
Manifesto of new art, largely due to its rich, unusual and refined
decoration.
"Princess Of Dreams»
Panels Vrubel "Princess
Dreams" called the most famous murals of Moscow. It is based on the
story of the drama in the poems of Edmond Rostand La Princesse
lointaine, in the Russian translation by T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik
called "Princess of Dreams". One of the actors in the play is the
Troubadour Jofre Rudel, whose legend of feeling for a Lady and the
motives of" distant love " of his songs formed the basis of the
plot. The play premiered on the Russian stage in January 1896 in
Saint Petersburg. A romantic story about the sublime desire for love
and perfect beauty, the contemplation of which is achieved at the
cost of death, was a resounding success with the public. There was a
waltz "Princess of Dreams", and even perfume and chocolate with this
name.
In the same year, 1896, S. Yu. Witte ordered Mikhail
Vrubel two paintings for the upcoming Nizhny Novgorod art and
industrial exhibition. One of them Vrubel performed on the plot of
the play rostana, the second - "Mikula Selyaninovich" - on the epic
story. However, the inspection of the panels and sketches caused
great displeasure among the members of the Imperial Academy of arts,
who did not recommend that Vrubel's works be displayed at the
exhibition. Then Savva Mamontov decided to demonstrate them in a
separate pavilion, built on his own initiative. But this idea turned
out to be a failure: despite the favorable assessment of critics,
the public reacted to the works of Vrubel unusually hostile.
When developing the project of the hotel "Metropol", Mamontov had
the idea to repeat the "Princess of Dreams" in ceramics and thereby
put it on public display forever. Since then, the creation of
Vrubel, depicting a dying young knight and a Princess bending over
him, is available to every passer-by. The painting panel, which was
shown at the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition, is now on display in the
Vrubel hall in the Tretyakov gallery.
Hall of the restaurant
" Metropol»
In the design of the lobby of the restaurant
participated painter F. Oborsky, sculptors V. L. Gladkov and V. A.
Kozlov. Abramtsevskaya facing tiles are used in the decoration of
the room.
Big hall
In 1903-1905, after a fire that
occurred two years earlier, the restaurant hall was re-designed in
the forms of modern French-Belgian orientation by the architect S.
p. Galenzovsky. The ceiling of the hall was designed by engineer V.
G. Shukhov by specialists of the Moscow branch of Artur Koppel JSC.
Sketches for the ceiling paintings were prepared by artists S. V.
Chekhov and T. A. Lugovskaya, and tapestry sketches by P. V.
Kuznetsov. In 1910, the design of the large hall of the restaurant
was partially changed by the architect A. E. Erichson.
Small
hall
The decor is based on V. Valkot's sketches (presumably) made
by Moscow masters of M. D. Kutyrin's factory. Painting by the artist
F. Oborsky.
The Siege of 1917: A Fortress of Terror and
Bombardment
One of the most visceral legends revolves around the
October Revolution of 1917, when the Metropol transformed from a symbol
of luxury into a besieged fortress of death and defiance. Anti-Bolshevik
forces, known as Junkers (cadet officers loyal to the Provisional
Government), barricaded themselves inside the hotel's thick walls,
turning it into a makeshift stronghold to defend approaches to Red
Square and the City Duma. For a harrowing week, they held out against
relentless Red Guard artillery fire, with shells slamming into the
building's façade, shattering windows, and scarring the ornate majolica
panels.
Eyewitness accounts fuel the legend's terror: "The scene was
terrifying. Shells kept hitting the walls of the hotel, exploding with
an incredible crack," recalled one survivor, describing dust-choked
halls and the constant roar of bombardment. Civilians trapped inside,
including future Czechoslovak president Tomáš Masaryk, endured the
chaos—kitchens bizarrely continued operating, serving meals amid the
rubble, as if normalcy could ward off the apocalypse. American
journalist John Reed, in his seminal Ten Days That Shook the World,
immortalized the aftermath: a "bed of bright flowers" blooming
incongruously in the debris, a surreal contrast to the blood and
destruction. The Junkers eventually surrendered, but legends whisper of
hidden bodies in the walls or basements, and the hotel's
"indestructibility" is often attributed to a cursed resilience—surviving
only to witness more horrors. This event scarred the building literally
and figuratively, with bullet holes patched but never forgotten, evoking
a sense of lingering violence that unnerves modern visitors.
The
Den of Dissolution: "Girls of the Metropol" and Pre-Revolutionary Vice
Before the revolution, the Metropol's legends painted it as a lair of
moral decay and predatory intrigue, a place where wealth bred terror in
subtler forms. Opened as Moscow's pinnacle of luxury—with hot water,
telephones, and a stained-glass-domed restaurant seating 2,000—it
quickly gained notoriety as a hub of debauchery. British diplomat and
spy Robert Bruce Lockhart, in his 1912 memoirs, described the atmosphere
as one of "coarseness and rudeness," where private cabinets hid illicit
affairs fueled by champagne and roubles. Phone calls from persistent
call girls plagued guests, and the phrase "girls of the Metropol" became
a chilling euphemism for prostitutes or women entangled in exploitative
liaisons, whispered with a knowing dread by bourgeois families warning
their daughters away.
This legend amplifies into tales of "dissolute
youth and debauched old" trafficking in "songs and love," evoking a
predatory underworld beneath the glamour. Poet e.e. cummings, in a
surreal 1931 account, described "uncouth ghosts" gliding through the
halls—an "apotheosis of isn’t," blending decadence with existential
horror, as if the hotel's excess summoned spectral remnants of lost
souls. Russian novelist Anatoly Rybakov echoed this in Children of the
Arbat, portraying the Metropol as a place where vulnerable women "find
her own kind of company," implying coercion and ruin. These stories fed
fears of the hotel as a moral black hole, where innocence vanished into
hidden rooms, a reputation that lingered even after nationalization,
blending folklore with the real perils of pre-revolutionary society.
Bolshevik Shadows: Executions, Spies, and Locked Rooms
Post-1917,
as the Second House of Soviets, the Metropol housed Bolshevik elites
like Lenin, Stalin, Bukharin, and Sverdlov, birthing legends of secret
terrors behind closed doors. A chilling tale centers on a telegram
allegedly sent from the hotel ordering the execution of Tsar Nicholas II
and his family in 1918—a mythic "death warrant" that symbolizes the
hotel's role in the Red Terror. Room 2217 is legendary as the site where
drafters of the first Soviet Constitution were imprisoned by Yakov
Sverdlov, forbidden to leave until finished, evoking claustrophobic
dread akin to a psychological horror.
Espionage legends add layers of
paranoia: The hotel became a "trolling ground" for secret police hunting
loose-lipped foreigners or compromised Russians. British spy Guy Burgess
lurked there in the 1960s, and during the 1930s purges, it hosted
Western intellectuals like George Bernard Shaw, who dined lavishly amid
famines, blind to the horrors outside. In WWII, it sheltered Allied
journalists under strict censorship, with a downed German bomber
gruesomely displayed outside as propaganda, amplifying wartime fear. The
overall impression was of "squatters in a haunt of the rich," with
vodka-fueled chaos and debates on "free love" masking deeper
repressions.
Modern Echoes: Oswald's Despair and Fictional
Prisons
Contemporary legends draw from infamous guests, none more
unsettling than Lee Harvey Oswald, who stayed in Room 2219 (sometimes
cited as 233) for three months in 1959. Denied Soviet citizenship, he
slashed his wrists in the bathtub in a suicide attempt, leaving a bloody
legacy that tourists still whisper about—imagining the room's walls
echoing with his desperation. Writer Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's memoir
The Girl from the Metropol Hotel captures childhood amid Soviet decay,
portraying the building as a gritty, abandoned world of war orphans and
faded glory.
Amor Towles's novel A Gentleman in Moscow fictionalizes
eternal confinement, with Count Rostov under house arrest in a tiny
attic—a metaphor for the hotel as a gilded cage, blending real history
with imagined terror. Mikhail Bulgakov referenced it in The Master and
Margarita as a site of ghostly emanations, further blurring lines.
Celebrity tales, like Michael Jackson composing "Stranger in Moscow"
amid isolation, add modern unease.