Grand Hotel Europe – St. Petersburg, Russia (English Leather Edition)

Welcome to the Grand Hotel Europe, Sir,’ the doorman says, the pride in his voice apparent. The term ‘Grand’ is certainly a fitting one in terms of the hotel’s reputation, its historic stature, and its physical presence. The façade of the hotel stretches 160 meters along Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa (Street), from the bustling Nevsky Prospekt to the peaceful Arts Square where the statue of Pushkin stands. St. Petersburg, constructed on over 30 islands, is the ‘Venice of the North’ (© Théophile Gautier, page 41).

With its palaces, churches and monuments, this city is certainly one of the most beautiful historic settings on earth. We are staying at the Grand Hotel Europe, the hotel where Tchaikovsky spent his honeymoon, where George Bernard Shaw saw Maxim Gorky and where Dmitri Shostakovich played a sonata for Sergei Prokofiev. Let us lean back in one of the comfortable armchairs at the Lobby bar and savour the atmosphere of this grand hotel. While we listen to the piano player, our minds wander back to the days when St Petersburg was the capital of the mighty Russian Empire. In the mid-19th century, S.t Petersburg had about 600,000 inhabitants.

Within the first years of the Grand Hotel Europe’s existence – it opened in 1875 – this figure rose to over 800,000. The city was the hub of six railways (described in the Encylopedia Britannica, 1889 as ‘two towards West to the Gulf of Finland and to Port Baltic’ (today Estonia), ‘two towards Warsaw and Moscow and two short ones to Oranienbaum and Tsarskoye Selo’). The city was the centre of science and fine arts. Its Academy of Sciences rendered important services in the exploration of Russia, the Pulkovo astronomical observatory’s yearly publications enjoyed a great reputation, the Society of Naturalists and the Physical and Chemical Society issued invaluable publications. Four medical societies and an Archaeological Society, a 120 years old Commercial Society, a Technical and Navigation Society, they all were of great importance. St. Petersburg’s music conservatory gave superior musical instruction, making the city – with one Imperial theatre for the ballet and one for the opera – the cradle of Russian opera, ballet and music. At the public library a collection of over one million books could be found, including 50,000 ‘Rossica’ (everything published in Russia). 120 periodicals were circulated (the right to publish political papers was in the hands of very few editors and severe censorship made it harder every day). The Hermitage Art Gallery contained a fine collection of the Flemish school and some Russian paintings, some good specimens of the Italian, French and Spanish schools and invaluable treasures of the Greek and Scythian antiquities.

This was St. Petersburg when the hotel opened. Follow me, my dear fellow traveller, into the story, the tales and legends of this grand hotel.

Andreas Augustin

Andreas Augustin
presents
The Grand Hotel Europe St Petersburg
in the series
The Most Famous Hotels In The World
This book was compiled and written at the Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersburg, in London and in Vienna.

Very special thanks go to Stephan Kaminski, general manager of­ the Grand Hotel Europe in 1996, who made this book possible, and to Brigitte T Gruber, who suggested it in the first place.

Thanks in loose order to: Elmar Greif, Peter Knoll , Snezhana Zamalieva, Yana Lakizina, Ulrich Wilhelm, Marina Alexandrova, Tiffany Madden, Natalia Minina, Tim Ettelt, Detlef Krenzin, Paul Murphy, Anthony Gear, Albrecht Schäfer, Eugene Iakovlev, Ralph Katthöfer, Martina Bruehl and Sabine van Ommen.
We thank Larissa Gavrova and Igor Bogdanov for their valuable help during the research in St Petersburg. We are also especially grateful to Wladimir B Geracemov, who shared with us some good old Grand Hotel stories and to Kaapralova Lidea Fedorovna at the Saltikov-Shedrin Russian National Library. We are very grateful to Viktoria Struzman, the architect of the renovations of the hotel who explained her work to us.
Last but not least many thanks to all the others who have contributed so generously to this book.
All rights in this publication are reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the copyright owner. All historical images have been restored and are under copyright.
The right of Andreas Augustin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

Photographs: Archives of the Grand Hotel Europe, Historical Archives of the Humanist Centre, the Saltikov-Shedrin Russian National Library, all St Petersburg;
Sabine van Ommen Public Relations, Berlin; and the Main Archives of The Most Famous Hotels.

Cover painting: Evgeniy Rusinov; Vignette, page 3: Andrey Tron
Research:  Carola E. Augustin, Andrew Williamson
Editor: Francesca Brizi and Thomas Cane

© The Most Famous Hotels in the World, 1996, 2002, 2007

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