Sokos Hotel Viru

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Coordinates: 59 ° 26 ′ 11.7 ″  N , 24 ° 45 ′ 18.1 ″  E

Sokos Hotel Viru

The Sokos Hotel Viru is a hotel in the Estonian capital Tallinn and at over 74 meters tall it is Tallinn's first skyscraper . Apart from the church towers, the building was the tallest in the city until 1980.

Hotel and location

The hotel is located directly at the old town, 100 steps from the Viru Gate ( Estonian Viru värav ; historical German name Lehmpforte ) of the Tallinn city wall , 550 m from the Town Hall Square ( Raekoja plats ), approx. 0.5 km from the passenger port and approx. 4 km from Tallinn Airport .

The hotel has 516 rooms, including 3 suites and 25 junior suites, 2 restaurants (“Merineitsi” on the first floor and “Amarillo” on the ground floor), bars, conference rooms and the night club “Amigo” in the basement.

history

The building was built in 1972 by Finnish companies, as were many other hotels in the Soviet Union, which lacked the necessary experience for modern construction. The grand opening of the hotel took place on May 5, 1972.

The project was designed by the Estonian architects Henno Sepmann and Mart Port , the interior design by Väino Tamm, V. Asi, L. Raudsepp, T. Gans, K. Laanemaa. The designers were U. Pall and K. Soonike.

The Viru hotell served as an interhotel . Mainly guests from non-socialist countries were accommodated in it, especially Finnish tourists. Prominent overnight guests included Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with his wife, the first person on the moon Neil Armstrong , the world's first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereschkowa , Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor and the Russian-Soviet singer and composer Alla Pugacheva .

The wiretapping systems that the KGB had installed in the hotel testify to its time as an Interhotel . This enabled numerous rooms to be monitored acoustically and visually. The decommissioned surveillance center of the Soviet secret service can still be viewed on the 23rd floor of the hotel.

Until the Hotel Olümpia was completed for the sailing competitions at the 1980 Summer Olympics , the Viru was the only hotel in Tallinn with international standards.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Estonian architecture of the 20th century (Russian)
  2. ↑ Urmas Vahe: Elizabeth Taylor tahtis Viru grilli koju kaasa võtta . Õhtuleht , February 18, 2009.
  3. ↑ http://de.euronews.net/2010/11/25/hotel-in-estland-bietet-kgb-museum/

Web links

Commons : Sokos Hotel Viru  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also