The Moskva Hotel — a hotel that no longer exists. It was well known in The City of Gorky, and was demolished in Nizhny Novgorod in the 1990s. It stood at the corner of Pozharsky Street and Theater Square, behind house number 7 on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya.
The Essence of the Matter
On the site of the old hotel building — which had fallen into considerable disrepair by the start of the turbulent nineties — a modern hotel was to have risen, but during the excavation of the foundation pit the investors discovered a necropolis of The Peoples of Nizhny Novgorod.
Today, where the Moskva once stood, there is a large pit fenced off with metal sheeting, which during popular festivities on major holidays serves as a public toilet.
History of the Issue
Construction of a four-star hotel on the site of the former Moskva Hotel began in 1997. The plot was leased for 49 years by Vesenniye Investitsii LLC (established by the British firms SABRE Development Management Ltd and Rocco Forte, and the American investment fund Commonwealth Property Investors).
In 1997, following the discovery of the ruins of a church and burials dating from the 15th–17th centuries, construction of the hotel was halted at the demand of the The Diocese of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, as the burials were deemed a force majeure circumstance. The Urban Development Council of Nizhny Novgorod Region approved a project for the construction of a five-star, 250-room hotel on Theatre Square on 5 June 2008. It was planned that designing the hotel would take one year, with construction to be completed within two years.
Vesenniye Investitsii LLC (Nizhny Novgorod) intended to begin construction of the hotel on Theatre Square no earlier than 2011, and upon completion of the hotel, to build a chapel alongside it. The chapel, to be built together with the hotel on the site of the former Moskva Hotel, was to be consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, since the Nikolsky Church had previously stood on this site. The construction of the chapel became the condition under which the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese withdrew its objections to building a hotel on the site of the former church. It is intended that the remains found on the site of the former church will be interred in a crypt in the basement of the new chapel. Prior to this, the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese had proposed abandoning the construction plans on the site of the former Moskva Hotel altogether.
Commentary from an Archaeological Excavation Participant
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"without coffins… they're expensive… but packed tight, yes… often whole families… two adult skeletons with little ones between them and beside them… even very tiny ones… they clearly died from illness… though after analysis the average age rarely exceeded 40 years… and sex is determined by the lower jaw… by this lower corner here… in men it's close to 90 degrees, in women it's always obtuse… and another thing striking about almost all the little corpses — beautiful teeth… well, rarely would someone have a tooth knocked out in a fight… but otherwise a full set without a single cavity… all healthy…" | 
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The Topic in the Mass Media
A Hotel — Earthly and Heavenly
At its most recent session, the Urban Development Council of Nizhny Novgorod Region approved the construction of a hotel on Theatre Square in the center of Nizhny Novgorod. The new hotel is planned to be built on the site of the Moskva Hotel, which burned down in the nineties. Construction was once actively opposed by the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, since the ruins of a church and ancient burials had been discovered on the site. For many years, a compromise with the secular authorities on this matter stubbornly failed to materialize.
The decision to build a hotel on Theatre Square was made back in the late 1990s by the city administration of the time. The foreign investors were, as they say, digging up the earth (both literally and figuratively) and waiting for the go-ahead to begin work. Had things gone differently, a hotel would long since have stood where the Moskva once was. But then minor circumstances — at first glance — and high politics intervened. The thing is, an ancient burial ground was discovered on the proposed construction site. It turned out that in medieval Nizhny Novgorod, the site had been home to the Nikolsky Verkhnye-Posadsky Orthodox church and its churchyard. The then-governor, Ivan Petrovich Sklyarov, to put it mildly, had no great fondness for the then-mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, Yuri Lebedev. And at the first opportunity to put a spoke in the wheel of the "runaway crowbar" Lebedev, Sklyarov decided to make a vivid demonstration of who was master of the house. The governor tried to kill not two but three birds with one stone. First, to make life difficult for the city administration and its head personally. Second, to fulfill the wishes of Metropolitan Nikolai, with whom Ivan Petrovich Sklyarov maintained friendly relations. And third, to score political points. As is well known, the electorate here is predominantly Orthodox and in places even God-fearing. The Church said "must" — the electorate said "yes, sir." A large-scale press campaign was launched against constructing a hotel on the burial site. The governor appeared before the electorate in the flattering light of a defender of Orthodox values and guardian of historical memory, while the mayor appeared in a rather less flattering light — as an unscrupulous businessman who, in pursuit of the golden calf, had encroached upon Orthodox canons, and was doing so with the help of unprincipled foreign operators to boot. The company Vesenniye Investitsii certainly tried to find a compromise with the regional leadership and the Diocese. But they held firm — no construction, and that's that! At a certain point, Yuri Lebedev himself, who still faced re-election in 2002, softened his position on the disputed matter and effectively came to support the Church's demands. The foreigners spat and went home. Others arrived in their place.
In 2002, a four-party agreement was concluded between the regional government, the Nizhny Novgorod city administration, Moscow's Rosbank, and the Czechoslovak Trade Bank. Under the terms of the agreement, the banks were to provide loans totaling 50 million rubles for hotel construction. It was planned that the city hall, the regional government, and Rosbank would create a joint venture to select a general contractor from among Czech construction companies, as well as a management company from among the world's leading hotel operators. The city administration undertook to provide tax concessions for the hotel.
However, work was once again halted at the Diocese's initiative.
Last autumn, the press again began talking about the ill-fated patch of land in the city center where the Moskva Hotel once stood. A certain public organization called the "Georgievsky Orthodox Union" held a picket on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street at the spot where the Nikolsky Church once stood. According to the organizers of the action, "the Orthodox public demands that the site of the demolished Moskva Hotel be properly developed" — and not merely developed, but that the site where the Nikolsky Church stood be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. For further development, naturally. Specifically — for the creation of a Memorial (nnov.ec) to the defenders of the Fatherland. A holy place, as they say, is never left empty. Since the early 2000s, a sort of improvised "hotel" had sprung up spontaneously in the very heart of the city on the Moskva site — not for ordinary people, but for various antisocial elements, or, to put it plainly, vagrants. And the Church was never given the site. And the hotel was never built. In short, it "turned out as usual" — that is to say, in this case, "neither for oneself nor for others."
And now — a new turn in the development of an old story. As early as next year, construction of a 250-room, five-star hotel will begin here. It is reported that the investor in the project is none other than Vesenniye Investitsii LLC, 100% of whose shares were acquired three years ago by a certain Bratina LLC. According to the project's architects, agreement has now been reached with the Diocese that a chapel will be built next to the hotel (on the side facing Pozharsky Street), where the remains from the ancient burial ground will be reinterred. Interestingly, the chapel option had also been considered eight years ago, but at that time, for some reason, it did not satisfy the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese. What has happened in the intervening years to bring the authorities and the Church to finally "shake on it"?
"Thank God that a decision has finally been made and that instead of a pit full of dirt and rubbish, there will be a wonderful modern hotel and a chapel where people who deserved to be remembered and treated with humanity will find their rest," said the "father of the city," Vadim Bulavinov, offering thanks to the "Heavenly Father." Though by all appearances, City Hall's involvement in the new project has been reduced to zero — the current municipality doesn't even control city land. At the same time, the regional government, at its most recent session, discussed the concept for developing the hotel industry in the region. As it turned out, Nizhny Novgorod today faces a shortage of 6,000 hotel rooms. According to forecasts, within two to three years the city's hotel room stock will grow by 3,020 bed-spaces, of which 250 will be rooms in the new hotel rising on the site of the demolished Moskva. There is no doubt that the new hotel in the city center will be in demand among visitors and all manner of tenants. And the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese will be satisfied with the chapel, where the remains of medieval city residents will be kept.
If one wishes, what has occurred can be seen as evidence of mutual understanding and the ability of secular and ecclesiastical authorities to seek compromise. Or even as a vivid indicator of political stability in the era of the power vertical: the governor gave the order, the Diocese raised no objection, the mayor "snapped a salute" and even sang the praises of the "Heavenly Father" for the fact that "a decision has finally been made." Hurrah for the vertical! The horizontal can rest — that's not our method! May the number of bed-spaces in the glorious city of Nizhny Novgorod multiply — for the living and the departed alike!
"Novaya Gazeta in Nizhny Novgorod"
Interesting Facts
- A significant portion of the excavated bones remained unclaimed and are kept in cardboard boxes in the garage of one of Nizhny Novgorod's Orthodox activists.