The National Hotel is a closed four-star hotel in Chișinău, Moldova. It was formerly called the Intourist Hotel, after the Soviet state-owned travel monopoly that initially ran it.
History
Soviet era
The Intourist Hotel was constructed in Chișinău, then the capital of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, and finished in 1974[1] or 1978.[2] It was designed by the architects A. Gorbuntsov and V. Shalaginov.[1] After its opening, the 17-story socialist modernist building "became a proud symbol of the Soviet Union's embrace of modernity", according to The New York Times. The four-star hotel was run by the Soviet state-owned travel monopoly of the same name, and it served as one of their flagship properties.[2] It was primarily booked by foreign visitors and Soviet celebrities.[3]
The hotel had three bars located on the 3rd, 14th, and 17th floors.
Moldovan era
Intourist pulled out of Moldova after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the Intourist hotel was taken over by MoldovaTur, a former Soviet and newly Moldovan state-owned company in 1992.[1][2] It was renamed the National Hotel at this time. Guest bookings dropped significantly after the 1992 Transnistria War.[2] In 1999, MoldovaTur agreed to sell the hotel to the Israeli company Avi Awaks for US$1.55 million, but the deal fell through.[4]
MoldovaTur was purchased by the private company Alfa Engineering in 2006.[1][2] Although the company promised to invest in the National Hotel, the building was left to decay as its ownership continued to change multiple times and the
See also
- Hotel Intourist, Moscow
Further reading
- – Includes a number of photos of the building, including its construction.
External links
- The National Hotel Chisinau by the Socialist Modernism project
- European Heritage Days
- Video of the building (2020)
- ICOMOS Moldova letter
- Proiecte de construcţii eşuate în municiupiu Chişinău ("Failed construction projects in Chișinău"), conference paper (2014, in Romanian)
References
- Dumitru Rusu. Heritage at Risk: World Report 2014–2015 on Monuments and Sites in Danger International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), 2017^
- Andrew Higgins. Trying to Save a Concrete 'Monument to Corruption' The New York Times, 4 August 2024, retrieved 12 August 2024^
- Natalya Sinyavskaya. Кошмар молдавской столицы – гостиница «Националь»: Что построят на этом месте, многоэтажку, торговый центр или примэрию