Metropol Hotel façades to be restored in 2018
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The facades of Metropol Hotel in central Moscow will be restored next year. Their surface will be cleaned by using special methods, using water, replastered and then repainted. Twenty-three ceramic majolica mosaic panes, including Mikhail Vrubel’s famous “The Princess of the Dream,” will be put in order.
Before deciding on the restoration project, experts conducted a historical-cultural appraisal of the hotel building. In mid-September, the City’s Department of Cultural Heritage used the reports drawn up by the surveyors to coordinate the restoration work needed on the building’s old façades plus the interior of the hotel
The building of the Metropol Hotel was designed by British architect William Walcott and constructed in 1905.
“The Metropol Hotel building ranks among the most important local Modernist cultural landmarks. It is the main feature making up Revolution Square’s architectural ensemble. The project calls for the restoration of the façades of the hotel, majolica panels, mosaic friezes, main-façade ceramic vases, metal balcony railings, the courtyard façade, the building’s interiors plus the chandelier,” Department of Cultural Heritage Head Alexei Yemelyanov noted.
Grime and dust will first be removed from hotel façades, and any cracks patched up. Their surfaces will eventually be replastered, decorative parts will be restored, as well as all façades will be repainted. Experts will later clean the 23 mosaic panels decorating two out of the three façades. One façade overlooks Teatralny Proyezd, and the other overlooks Revolution Square. All majolica panels have ceramic tiles made from glazed and painted terracotta. Majolica tiles for the hotel’s façades designed by famous artists Mikhail Vrubel and Alexander Golovin were made at the Abramtsevo ceramics workshop.
Vrubel’s “The Princess of the Dream” majolica panel, the largest in the hotel, decorates its façade overlooking Teatralny Proyezd. The mosaic illustrates the plot of French poet Edmond Rostand’s drama with the same name that was very popular in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The panel shows a dying young knight together with a princess leaning over him. Other majolica panels called “Thirst,” “Worshipping a Deity,” “Worshipping Nature,” “The Bathing of the Naiads,” “Worshipping Old Times” and “Cleopatra” by Alexander Golovin are located on the façades’ corners. The creators of 16 other small panels are not known. Majolica tiles forming a quotation by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche “Another old truth: You notice that you have learned something after building a house” also adorns the façade of the hotel.
The turquoise-ceramic majolica vases will also be restored on the hotel’s façade. Metal balconies around the building will also be put in order. Workers will strip the old paint together with of the railings and then repaint them. Much of the interior will also be renovated. For example, all kinds of decorations inside will be restored. The current parquet floor will be replaced with an oak equivalent resembling the original parquet floor. Drawings will be touched up using documents from the archives.
Located at 2 Teatralny Proyezd, Hotel Metropol was built between 1899-1905 and replaced another hotel with shopping malls that belonged to merchant Pyotr Chernyshov. In 1898, industrialist Savva Mamontov (1841-1918), a patron of the arts, bought the hotel and nearby plots of land and decided to build a public-cultural centre with a hotel facility, restaurants, a theatre, an art gallery, a bowling alley and also an indoor skating rink. Apart from British architect William Walcott, he commissioned the services of such artists as Mikhail Vrubel, Alexander Golovin, Konstantin Korovin as well as Vasily Polenov.
New owners took over in 1899 and made considerable alterations to the building. The hotel caught fire in 1901, and this also affected its design. After this incident, the hotel’s central lobby was converted into a restaurant. This was a deviation from the original plans which were meant to include a theatrical stage with seats for spectators.
Hotel Metropol was opened in 1905 and was considered quite unique in terms of its size, comfort levels plus lavish pompous interior. The hotel had 400 different suites with refrigerators, telephones as well as running hot water. During the Soviet period, such foreign celebrities as writers Bernard Shaw and Berthold Brecht, actors Marcello Mastroianni and Marlene Dietrich stopped there. The building was overhauled between 1986-1991, with workers restoring its original façades. Interior walls were also totally stripped.
This year, the city has renovated the façades of over 700 buildings, including those of cultural landmarks, such as the chambers of the Romanov Boyar clan, the theatrical outhouse of the Alexeyev family estate and the Bocharov Brothers’ residential building that was rented out to tenants. In all, the façades of 830 buildings are scheduled for renovation in central Moscow before the year is out. The façades of 17 metro station entrance halls, including 13 with a cultural landmark status, are to be renovated by late 2017. Most stations are located inside the Third Ring Road, and seven more are part of Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line (No 3, Teatralnaya and Arbatskaya), Circle Line (No 5, Biblioteka imeni Lenina, Paveletskaya, Taganskaya and Oktyabrskaya). The façades of Kuznetsky Most station, part of Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line (No 7) and Oktyabrskaya station, part of Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line (No 6) will also be renovated.