Astoria

In the XIX century. at this place was the mansion of Prince A. Lvov. At the beginning of the XX century. the Palace-Hotel English joint-stock company acquired the land with the house with the intention of building a hotel with expensive rooms here. In 1908, the mansion was dismantled. The new hotel was supposed to be built by the end of 1909, but as a result, the building was built in 1911 - 1912 . The author of the project was the famous Petersburg architect F.I. Lidval . An engineer N.P. Kozlov and an engineer-architect K. G. Eulers also participated in the construction.

The official opening of the hotel took place on December 23, 1912. The name was given in memory of the fashionable New York hotels owned by Astor 's cousins, one of whom died a few months earlier on the Titanic, giving the women a place in the lifeboat. The first director of the hotel was the Frenchman Louis Terrier.

During the First World War, Astoria became a military hotel, and officers of the highest command staff lived here. During the revolutionary events of 1917, the hotel was in their center, it was taken by storm. After the revolution, the hotel was nationalized , but after the start of the NEP it was corporatized . In 1929, the hotel was transferred to the joint-stock company Intourist ; it remained under the authority of this company until 1996 .

During the Great Patriotic War , in 1941, a hospital was located in Astoria, where the remaining writers , artists , and musicians were treated in the city.

Currently, the hotel operator is Rocco Forte Hotels, which owns 11 five-star luxury hotels and resorts around the world, the hallmarks of which are a unique style that reflects the national spirit and location. The hotel has 169 rooms, of which 86 are luxury rooms, including a presidential two-bedroom apartment, 1 royal suite with a balcony and a royal suite. The interior decoration of the hotel includes 17 paintings by the Angleterre gallery, united by the theme “Keepers of the City”, and a series of 7 paintings “Petersburg Carnivals”, designed to decorate the hotel’s casino. The paintings were made by the artists of the workshop “FORUS” in 1989 . ^[one]

The hotel was originally conceived as a comfortable institution, equipped with the latest technology.

“The hotel building is entirely fireproof, and will be equipped with the latest heating, ventilation, water supply, sewage, elevators, refrigerators, etc. It will comprise about 250 living rooms, several large rooms, including one with a stage and a winter garden, etc .; the basement floors and the space under the yards will be waterproof and intended for office premises. " ^[2]

“Astoria”, built in the neoclassical style with modern elements, has six floors, while the walls of the building are visually divided into three tiers: the two lower floors, faced with granite, look like the base of the hotel, the middle floors are stone-plastered and combined with wide cannulated pilasters , the upper the floor, separated by a cornice, is decorated with decorative vases. At the same time, a powerful cornice above the fifth floor visually reduces the height of the building, and a smoothly cut corner (this was done so that the new building does not obscure the view of St. Isaac's Cathedral), glazed arched windows on the first floor and restrained decorative decoration (oval medallions carved in granite with garlands, masks above the windows) add elegance to the monumental building.

In the early 1990s the hotel was completely renovated.

• On the eve of Valentine's Day in 2007, Forbes magazine published a rating of the most romantic hotels in the world. When compiling it, the level of service, the quality of bedding, and the range of services were taken into account (for example, the ability to order breakfast in bed, cover the room with rose petals or organize a romantic dinner for lovers). At the 9th position is the only Russian hotel - this is Astoria in St. Petersburg. ^[3]
• There is a legend that when preparing to enter 1941 after the assault in Leningrad, the German command pre-printed invitation cards for a gala banquet at the Astoria Hotel. For this reason, shelling it from long-range guns and bombing from the air was prohibited. ^[4] However, this legend is not documented in any way. ^[5]
• On May 21, 1957, Alexander Vertinsky died of acute heart failure at the Astoria Hotel ^[6] .
• In 2009, during the world Sticky and Sweet Tour, singer Madonna included St. Petersburg in the concert schedule. One of the prerequisites for arrival was accommodation at the Astoria Hotel, despite the fact that the city has a large number of other modern and comfortable hotels.
• Astoria also included such celebrities as Herbert Wells , Alain Delon , Robert Plant , Maya Plisetskaya , George W. Bush , Margaret Thatcher , Matthew Bellamy , Rolling Stones , Rammstein , 30 seconds to Mars , Linkin Park , Depeche Mode , Evanescence .
• One of the episodes of the film “ The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia ” was shot in Astoria ^[7] .
• When the Astoria Hotel purchased new dishes, the old ones were transferred to the Lenfilm film studio. Spoons, forks, knives, antique crystal glasses, silver champagne buckets, ponds in which dishes are heated, stands for boiled eggs, etc. All these were stylish, graceful things made at one time for the best Russian hotel by special order. Since then, dishes from Astoria have acted in films several times. For example, in “ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ”, two English gentlemen wield these cutlery ^[8] .

• Angleterre
• Waldorf-Astoria (hotel chain)

• Official site of the Astoria Hotel
• Official site of The Rocco Forte Hotels, owner of Astoria
• www.allcafe.info Restaurant History - Astoria and Angleterre
• I.A. Bogdanov. "Astoria", hotel (neopr.) . Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg . Date of treatment March 13, 2012.