Hotel George is a hotel located in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

that was built in 1899–1900 and opened in 1901. It was designed by the

Fellner & Helmer Fellner & Helmer was an architecture studio founded in 1873 by Austrian architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer. They designed over 200 buildings (mainly opera houses and apartment buildings) across Europe in the late 19th century and ear ...

architecture studio.

History

The history of the hotel dates back to 1793 when an inn was constructed on the site. In 1811 it was replaced by a new building called "Russie Hotel", a three-story hotel with two entrances. On the Chorążczyzna Street (now Tschaikowski Street) there was a large garden. The hotel was taken over in 1816 by the Lviv merchant, George Hofmann (1778–1839), whom the hotel was named after. It was demolished in 1899. The new building was constructed from 1899 to 1901 by

, with participation of the Lviv architects Iwan Lewiński and Julian Cybulski. The new hotel was inaugurated on January 8, 1901. At the time, it had 93 rooms, including 32 luxury-class rooms. The hotel was extended by two floors in 1906. From 1910 to 1912, it housed

Alfred Altenberg Alfred Altenberg (1878 in Warsaw – May 8, 1924, in Lviv) was a Polish bookseller and publisher. He worked in Lviv. In 1897 he took over the family business, Wydawnictwo Altenberga, from his father Herman (1848–1885), and ran the Herman Alter ...

's bookstore on the ground floor. The hotel was completely renovated in 1927, and a fifth floor was added. In 1932 the reading room and restaurant were modernized by Tadeusz Wróbel. During the Soviet rule from 1939 to 1941 and from 1944 to 1990, it was administered by the Soviet travel agency. Among notable guests who stayed at the hotel, Honore de Balzac,

Ethel Lilian Voynich Ethel Lilian Voynich, ''née'' Boole (11 May 1864 – 27 July 1960) was an Irish-born British novelist and musician, and a supporter of several revolutionary causes. She was born in Cork (city), Cork, but grew up in Lancashire, England. Voynich ...

Franz von Liszt Franz Eduard Ritter von Liszt (2 March 1851 – 21 June 1919) was a German jurist, criminologist and international law reformer. As a legal scholar, he was a proponent of the modern sociological and historical school of law. From 1898 until 1917, ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...

, and

Józef Piłsudski ), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) , death_date = , death_place = Warsaw, Poland , constituency = , party = None (formerly PPS) , spouse = , children = Wan ...

. In 1940, the hotel was renamed Lviv, and in Soviet times it was connected to the Intourist network, so it was named that way. During the Soviet period, the hotel was also popular with foreign guests. After gaining independence, it was returned to its ancient name "Georges".

Architecture

The building is made of brick, with a high mansard roof. The original building had a dominant Italian Renaissance style, but through renovations over decades, it had added elements of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. In the niches there is sculptures of The Four Continents, a work by

Leonard Marconi Leonard Marconi (Warsaw, 6 October 1835 – 1 April 1899, Lviv) was a Polish and Austro-Hungarian architect and sculptor. He was active chiefly at Warsaw, then in Galicia, notably at Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine). Life Leonard Marconi was born on 6 ...

and

Antoni Popiel Antoni Popiel (13 June 1865, in Szczakowa, Galicia (now Jaworzno) – 7 July 1910, in Velykyi Liubin near Lviv) was a Polish sculptor. Life He studied at the School of Fine Arts, Kraków from 1882 to 1884, with Izydor Jabłoński, Władys� ...

that represents Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. The main façade shows a bas-relief of the original owner George Hofmann, a work by Popiel.

References

External links

Official website
1901 establishments in Austria-Hungary

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

Hotels established in 1901

Fellner & Helmer buildings {{Ukraine-hotel-stub