Travelling through the city centre, you can see quite a large number of interesting sculptures and buildings. I will tell you a little more about one of them today. It is located next to the city garden, namely on the central street of Odesa - Deribasivska. This is the street that almost never sleeps in peacetime. It is the place where street musicians like to perform, people dance in completely different styles, fire shows took place here and the main Christmas tree of the city is installed here in honour of the New Year holidays.
Today I invite you to get acquainted with the restored "Velika Moskovska" hotel. The construction of this beautiful place continued in the period 1902-1904, and the authors of the project were Lev Vlodek, Tovii Fishel and S.I. Milman. By the way, it was these people who designed the cosiest place in Odesa - the local passage, which I will talk about in one of the next posts.
First of all, this building was supposed to become the luxurious office of Dementiev and Vasiliev, who were engaged in the sale of goods from the East - tea, coffee, various materials for sewing clothes, as well as bamboo furniture, etc. In the same building, there should have been shops with these goods on the first floor. But, during the construction period, the business, as well as the financial condition of the entrepreneurs faltered, so they decided to build their own hotel in order not to go bankrupt completely. Although on the first floor, they still equipped several shops and the office of their company.
At that time, the interior of the new hotel impressed everyone around. It was built in the Art Nouveau style and decorated with a huge amount of various stucco on the facade. By the way, the hotel became a local legend, or rather the stucco on the walls in the shape of people and their faces, the locals believed that it was impossible to create such detailed images on their own, and therefore soon the myth spread throughout the city that there were actually living people bricked up there.
Room prices were quite inexpensive, and therefore the hotel quickly gained popularity and had permanent residents who did not say goodbye to their rooms for months. Also, there were all the necessary amenities - bathtubs in the rooms, electric lighting, steam heating, as well as one of the first elevators in the city.
In the Soviet period, the hotel had the best pastry shop in the city, as well as a cinema where various documentaries were shown. However, the upper floors have fallen into disrepair. Later, the whole building suffered significant destruction and did not decorate the main street of the city at all. On the contrary, it was quite dangerous to walk there, the building was in critical condition. In 2006, the local authorities gave permission for restoration and reconstruction to the construction company "Shnkor-Group", the architect was the Spaniard Alberto Foyo, but later he was replaced by Odesan Povstanyuks.
To date, the exterior of the building has been completely restored, and the interior is still being renovated. Many people argue about the appearance of the hotel. Someone believes that it does not correspond to the primary look, someone, on the contrary, likes everything. In any case, the building attracts attention and makes you stop and look at it. I hope that sometime in the future this hotel will still be open and it will be possible to stay there just to feel like a part of the history of the city, as well as to look at the stucco up close.
Hotel "Velyka Moskovska" is located in the city of Odesa, on the street Deribasivska 29.
The exact GPS coordinates are 46.48425, 30.73500