If you’ve watched the Grand Hotel Budapest and are looking for a hotel with that feel of yesteryear, then the Hotel Venets is for you. Built for a Soviet leader and visited by various soviet heads of state, the Hotel Venets was quite something in its day.
Where and Why the Venets Hotel?
The Hotel Venets is located within the centre of the city of Ulyanovsk. Ulyanovsk was initially founded under the name Simbirsk but was renamed in 1924 in honour of one of its most famous inhabitants, Vladimir Lenin. Lenin’s birth name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and Simbirsk adopted the Ulyanov family name upon Lenin’s death.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that Ulyanovsk would undergo one of the most significant changes in its history when it was decided that “the homeland of the leader of world revolution must live up to its status.”
Throughout the 1960s, cranes dominated the Ulyanovsk skyline; not only were statues and museums built, but the city underwent a substantial upgrade. These projects were all completed to celebrate the 100 years since the birth of Lenin in 1970.
On the 20th of November 1967, a government meeting, as part of the 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, decided that Ulyanovsk would be developed further, including the construction of an Airport, Railway station, Volga river port, Pedagogical Institute, a Palace of Culture, a Schoolchildren’s Palace, a Palace of Young Pioneers, a three-story department store, a library, seven new factories and a residential high rise.
The Lenin Complex
Aside from all of the other structures erected throughout the city, one of the leading construction projects was the Lenin Memorial Complex. The complex is a series of museums celebrating Lenin’s birth, incorporating the house where he spent much of his early life and the building where he was born.
The old buildings are all surrounded by an extensive history museum protecting these traditional wooden dwellings. The whole complex is fascinating as it focuses not only on Ulyanovsk’s most famous resident, but also gives a little snippet of the daily life of the population at the turn of the century.
Upon completion in 1970, Ulyanovsk became one of the most popular domestic tourist destinations within the Soviet Union; the central hotel to serve the influx of incoming visitors was the Hotel Venets (The Crown Hotel).
Venets Hotel: Fit for a King
Upon its completion in 1967, the Venets Hotel was the tallest building in Ulyanovsk and one of the most prominent hotels in the Soviet Union. At 24 floors, this Soviet monolith has imposing views over the city and the Volga river and remains the city’s tallest building.
The hotel wasn’t only one of the biggest and best in the Soviet Union but was famed for its vast dining area, catering for well over 700 guests when operating at capacity. Many diners would not only come from the 511 rooms. But file into the hotel from the nearby river port arriving on cruise ships that traversed the USSR along the Volga.
During its heyday, the hotels most famed Soviet guest was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSr: Leonid Brezhnev, who stayed in order to open the Lenin Memorial Museum. Amongst other eminent visitors, Erich Honecker, leader of the German Democratic Republic, would stay at the Venets Hotel.
The Venets Hotel Today
The Soviet Union may be long gone, but along with the city of Ulyanovsk, the Venets still holds a certain period charm. Within the Venets Hotel, there have been attempts at modernization to shed the veil of soviet design; it’s still clear that this grand structure is resisting change. The hotel’s lobby may have lost its long sleek reception desk, the cavernous space now filled with a white counter that looks like it was brought from an eighties garden centre. But a look around will reveal characteristics from the hotel’s past, marble blocks and pillars hemmed in concrete, frame heavy staircases which complete the brutalist feel.
The wooden panelling in the elevators may have given way to brushed steel, but the doors’ slow movement still has that pause, which gives you that extra second to contemplate the hotel’s Soviet past.
Some of the Budget rooms still exude a little soviet elegance containing blue-tiled bathrooms while showcasing great examples of 1970s chipboard furniture and wood panelling. Cheap, tacky Chinese bedside lamps may have found their way into most rooms but step outside into the corridors, and you are transported immediately back to the heady days of Uri Gagarin, Sputnik and the world’s most pleasing national anthem!
Atop the hotel sits the aptly named Olympus bar offering the best views in town over the Volga River, and if you’re lucky enough, you’ll catch one of the stunning sunsets, all while downing a vodka or sipping on the house speciality, the Olympus cocktail.
The Hotel Venets continues to dominate the Ulyanovsk skyline, although now older and a little more worn around the corners. Venets still retains an excellent 3-star rating, which may not be on par with its once glorious standing but, in a way, makes a visit here a lot more attainable for the working man. (something Lenin would surely approve of!) If you have the time and the language skills, maybe chat to a few of the older hotel staff, and they will tell proud tales about a time when the hotel had the best work unit in town, and all of the 508 rooms were fully booked with 1008 guests!