This building in Moscow was my hotel for a few days. My host suggested it as it is within walking distance from their office.
The Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya Hotel (Хилтон Москоу Ленинградская) designed by Leonid Polyakov, completed in 1954 is one of Moscow’s seven Stalinist skyscrapers built in the early 1950s. The Stalinist architecture abandoned modernity in favor of a mix of the Russian neoclassicalism with the style of American skyscrapers of the 1930s.
Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki (Сталинские высотки), meaning “(Stalin’s) high-rises”. Some were the tallest building or hotel in Europe at that time. These seven buildings nicknamed Seven Sisters which were completed include Moscow State University, Hotel Ukraina, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Leninsgraksaya Hotel, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building, the Kudrinskaya Square Building, and the Red Gates Administrative Building.
This hotel is relatively small compared to the other skyscrapers. There are 26 floors, of which 19 are usable. It was built to a similar style as the Kazansky railway terminal next to it.
Reception area
Ceiling of the reception area
The lobby is triple-height at least, and surrounded by marble columns and stone walls. The lobby ceiling is just as ornate.
The ornately decorated lobby is lit in part by these lights with a translucent mineral lamp shade.
The translucent minerals have visible veins. Eerily beautiful.
The lobby staircase features one of the longest lighting fixtures in the world—apparently it was once in the Guinness Book of World Records.
A dramatic space to have a drink.
I ate a couple of meals in the restaurant. Good and convenient since there are few restaurants in the area.
The hotel completed in 1954, was designed to be the finest luxury hotel in Moscow, joined the Hilton Hotels chain in 2008 after completing a multimillion-dollar restoration and renovation.
My room was on one of the higher floors and looks over the three main railway stations of Moscow. It snowed for a few hours.
Same view – different times of day
The room and furnishings were business standard – nothing special – it is a Hilton after all.
Recommendable.