The Hotel Metropol Moscow (russian: Метропо́ль, ) is a historic hotel in the center of
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, built in 1899–1905 in
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
style. It is notable as the largest extant Moscow hotel built before the
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
, and for the unique collaboration of architects (
William Walcot
William Walcot (10 March 1874 – 21 May 1943) was a Scottish architect, graphic artist and etcher, notable as a practitioner of refined Art Nouveau (Style Moderne) in Moscow, Russia (as Вильям Францевич Валькот). His t ...
,
Lev Kekushev
Lev Nikolayevich Kekushev (russian: Лев Николаевич Кекушев) was a Russian architect, notable for his Art Nouveau buildings in Moscow, built in the 1890s and early 1900s in the original, Franco-Belgian variety of this style. Ke ...
,
Vladimir Shukhov
Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Григо́рьевич Шу́хов; – 2 February 1939) was a Russian Empire and Soviet engineer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new ...
) and artists (
Mikhail Vrubel
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (russian: Михаил Александрович Врубель; March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910, all New Style, n.s.) was a Russian Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, and sculptor. A prolific and inno ...
,
Alexander Golovin,
Nikolai Andreev
Nikolai Andreev (born 5 February 1975 in Saratov, Russia) is a Russian mathematician and popularizer of mathematics. He was awarded with the Leelavati Award in 2022.
Biography
Nikolai is the Head of the Laboratory for Popularization and Pro ...
).
Since 2012, the hotel has been owned by
Alexander Klyachin
Alexander Klyachin (russian: Александр Ильич Клячин) is a Russian entrepreneur and investor. According to Forbes, as of April 2021, his fortune is estimated at $1,600 million in 2020, making him the 60th richest businessperson ...
, who also is proprietor of the Moscow-based
Azimut Hotels
Azimut Hotels is a privately held Russian company that manages an international hotel chain. By mid-2021, it operated 40 hotels in Russia and Europe. According to Hotels Magazine, in 2015 the company was among the largest hotel networks worldwi ...
chain.
History
In 1898,
Savva Mamontov
Savva Ivanovich Mamontov (russian: Са́вва Ива́нович Ма́монтов, ; 3 October 1841 (15 October N.S.), Yalutorovsk – 6 April 1918, Moscow) was a Russian industrialist, merchant, entrepreneur and patron of the arts.
Busine ...
and Petersburg Insurance consolidated a large lot of land around the former Chelyshev Hotel. Mamontov, manager and sponsor of
Private Opera
The Private Opera (russian: Частная Опера), also known as:
*The Russian Private Opera ();
*Moscow Private Russian Opera, ();
*Mamontov's Private Russian Opera in Moscow ();
*Korotkov's Theatre (, 1885-1888);
*Vinter's Theatre (, ...
, intended to redevelop the area into a large cultural center built around an
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
hall. Mamontov eventually hired Kekushev as a construction manager. Soon, Savva Mamontov was jailed for fraud and the project was taken over by Petersburg Insurance, omitting the opera hall that had originally been planned.
In 1901, the topped-out shell burnt down and had to be rebuilt from scratch in reinforced concrete. Kekushev and Walcot hired a constellation of first-rate artists, notably
Mikhail Vrubel
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (russian: Михаил Александрович Врубель; March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910, all New Style, n.s.) was a Russian Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, and sculptor. A prolific and inno ...
for the ''Princess of Dreams'' mosaic panel,
Alexander Golovin for smaller ceramic panels and sculptor
Nikolay Andreyev
Nikolay Andreyevich Andreyev (russian: Николай Андреевич Андреев; – 24 December 1932) was a Russian sculptor, graphic artist and stage designer. As a young man Andreyev studied with Sergey Volnukhin and in 1902 became ...
for plaster
frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
s. The hotel was completed in 1907. However, it is nowhere near Walcot's original design (Brumfiels, fig.56, compare to actual, fig.59-60).
A notable feature of the ''Metropol'' is "its lack of any reference to the
orders
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
of architecture ... a structural mass shaped without reference to illusionistic systems of support" (Brumfield). The rectangular bulk of the Metropol is self-sufficient; it needs no supporting columns. Instead, "Texture and material played a dominant expressive role, exemplified at the Metropole by the progression from an arcade with stone facing on the ground floor to inset windows without decorative frames on the upper floors" (Brumfield).
In 1918, the hotel was nationalized by the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
administration, renamed ''Second House of Soviets'' and housed living quarters and offices for the growing
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
bureaucracy
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
. Eventually in the 1930s it reverted to its original function as a hotel and in 1986-1991 was throroughly restored by Finnish companies as part of Soviet-Finnish
bilateral trade
Bilateral trade or clearing trade is trade exclusively between two states, particularly, barter trade based on bilateral deals between governments, and without using hard currency for payment. Bilateral trade agreements often aim to keep trade def ...
.
As of 2022, the ''Metropol'' has 365 rooms, each being different in its shape or decoration.
Apocrypha
The Canadian businessman
Aggie Kukulowicz
Adolph Frank "Aggie" Kukulowicz (April 2, 1933 – September 26, 2008) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and Russian-language interpreter. He played four games in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, then played 12 ...
was at one point in time a hotel resident, while he brokered hockey's 1972
Summit Series
The Summit Series, Super Series 72, Canada–USSR Series (russian: Суперсерия СССР — Канада, Superseriya SSSR — Kanada), or Series of the Century (french: Série du siècle, Séries of the Century), was an eight-game ic ...
between the
Red Machine team and the first ''Team Canada''.
The hotel is the setting of
Amor Towles
Amor Towles (born 1964) is an American novelist. He is best known for his bestselling novels ''Rules of Civility'' (2011), ''A Gentleman in Moscow'' (2016), and ''The Lincoln Highway'' (2021).
Early life and education
Towles was born and raise ...
's 2016 novel, ''
A Gentleman in Moscow
''A Gentleman in Moscow'' is a 2016 novel by Amor Towles. It is his second novel, published five years after his The New York Times Best Seller list, '' New York Times'' best seller, ''Rules of Civility'' (2011).
Background
The protagonist is ...
.
Gallery
Image:Wiki_Metropol_Hotel_Moscow_Artwork_2.jpg, Princess of Dreams
Image:Wiki_Metropol_Hotel_Moscow_Artwork_1.jpg, Southern corner
Image:Wiki_Metropol_Hotel_Moscow_Artwork_3.jpg, Western corner
Image:Moscow 05-2017 img36 Hotel Metropol.jpg, Grand Hall of the restaurant
Image:Moscow_Metropol_Hotel_2011.JPG, Northern facade (Teatral`nyy proyezd), 2011
Image:Moscow Hotel Metropol asv2018-08.jpg, Southern facade, 2018
References
*
William Craft Brumfield
__NOTOC__
William Craft Brumfield (born June 28, 1944) is a contemporary American historian of Russian architecture, a preservationist and an architectural photographer. Brumfield is currently Professor of Slavic studies at Tulane University.
...
, The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture, University of California Press, 199
chapter 3, fig.56-60
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metropol Moscow
Hotels in Moscow
Hotel buildings completed in 1905
Hotel Metropol Moscow
The Hotel Metropol Moscow (russian: Метропо́ль, ) is a historic hotel in the center of Moscow, Russia, built in 1899–1905 in Art Nouveau style. It is notable as the largest extant Moscow hotel built before the Russian Revolution o ...
Hotel Metropol Moscow
The Hotel Metropol Moscow (russian: Метропо́ль, ) is a historic hotel in the center of Moscow, Russia, built in 1899–1905 in Art Nouveau style. It is notable as the largest extant Moscow hotel built before the Russian Revolution o ...
Hotel Metropol Moscow
The Hotel Metropol Moscow (russian: Метропо́ль, ) is a historic hotel in the center of Moscow, Russia, built in 1899–1905 in Art Nouveau style. It is notable as the largest extant Moscow hotel built before the Russian Revolution o ...
Hotels established in 1907
Art Nouveau hotels
1907 establishments in the Russian Empire
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow