Rossiya Hotel, Moscow

The Rossiya Hotel (Russian: Россия ) was a large hotel built in Moscow in 1967 at the order of the Soviet Government. Construction used the existing foundations of a cancelled skyscraper project, the Zaryadye Administrative Building, which would have been the eighth of what is now referred to as the Seven Sisters. The architect was Dmitry Chechulin.Large portions of a historic district of Moscow, known as Zaryadye, were demolished in the 1940s for the original project. It was registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest hotel in the world. It remained the largest hotel in Europe up until its 2006 closure.The 21 storey Rossiya had 3,200 rooms, 245 half suites, a post office, a health club, a nightclub, a movie theater and a barber shop as well as the 2500-seat State Central Concert Hall. The building was capable of sheltering over 4,000 guests. Most of these rooms were 118 square feet, far smaller than most hotel rooms in the west. The hotel was adjacent to Red Square, its 21-story tower looming over the Kremlin walls and the cupolas of Saint Basil's Cathedral. In 1977, there was a massive fire in the hotel, killing 42 and injuring 50.