The Arctic is a high-rise hotel in the center of Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

, Russia. It is the tallest building in Murmansk and the tallest building located above the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

.

Description

The hotel is located at 82 Lenin Avenue at Five Corners

Five Corners, Murmansk

Five Corners is the main square of Murmansk, Russia. From 1977 until December of 1990 it was formally named "Soviet Constitution Square", but this name never caught on.The following buildings are located on the square:...

, Murmansk's main square. Prior to its closing, the hotel had a restaurant (also called "Arctic"), a cafe (the "Day and Night"), a billiards

Billiards

Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...

 room, a hairdressing salon, a tanning salon, and several shops, bars, and coffee shops.

History

The first Murmansk hotel named "Arctic" opened in 1933. It was a four–story brick building with 100 rooms. In 1972 – 1984 the old hotel was demolished and replaced by the current building. Before 1988 the hotel was a state enterprise. In 1990 it became the property of a joint Soviet–Swedish company. In 1996 it acquired the status of a municipal hotel and restaurant complex, in 2003 it became a municipal unitary enterprise, and in 2006 it was privatized

Privatization in Russia

Russian privatization was the reform consisting in privatization of state-owned industrial assets that took place in Russia in the 1990s, during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, where private ownership of enterprises had been illegal for a long...

. Half the shares are held by the City of Murmansk and half by the Azimut Hotels Corporation.

In 1996 (the 80th anniversary of the establishment of Murmansk), following an initiative by mayor Oleg Naydenov, chimes were installed in the hotel which play "My Beloved Arctic

My Beloved Arctic

"My Beloved Arctic" is the unofficial anthem of the Murmansk region of Russia.The song was written by Vladimir A. Popov and Vladimir Smirnov . The song plays every hour at Five Corners, the main square of Murmansk, from chimes installed in the Hotel Arctic...

", the unofficial anthem of the Murmansk region. The chimes were silenced from 2007 to 2009 for repairs.

Renovation

In 2009 the Hotel Arctic was closed for renovation designed to upgrade the comfort and safety of the hotel. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011.
The renovation is being undertaken by the Azimut Hotels Company

AZIMUT Hotels Company

AZIMUT Hotels Company is a Russian hotel chain and hotel management contractor. Founded in 2004, the headqarters is located in Moscow, and is the largest hotel chain in the country. AZIMUT also runs 17 hotels in other parts of Europe, including Ukraine....

, the architectural firm of Nikolai Lyzlov, and a British architectural firm.

The renovation will update the facade, increase the number of elevators, and provide space for boutiques, cafes, and restaurants. The utilities will be updated, the outdated fire safety systems will be replaced, and the average room size will be increased to 80 square metres (861.1 sq ft). The first six or seven floors will be converted to office space, with hotel rooms occupying only the upper ten floors.

Notable guests

Various persons of note have stayed at the old or new Arctic, including the Soviet physicist Sergei Vavilov, the arctic explorers Vladimir Wiese

Vladimir Wiese

Professor Vladimir Yulyevich Vize , was a Russian scientist of German descent who devoted his life to the study of the Arctic ice pack...

, Otto Schmidt

Otto Schmidt

Otto Yulyevich Schmidt was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, academician, Hero of the USSR , and member of the Communist Party.-Biography:He was born in Mogilev, Russian Empire...

, and Ivan Papanin

Ivan Papanin

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin was a Russian Polar Explorer, Scientist,Counter Admiral, twice Hero of the Soviet Union awarded nine Orders of Lenin...

, the Soviet writers Veniamin Kaverin

Veniamin Kaverin

Veniamin Alexandrovich Kaverin was a Soviet writer associated with the early 1920s movement of the Serapion Brothers. The immunologist Lev Zilber was his older brother, and the critic Yury Tynyanov was his brother-in-law....

, Konstantin Simonov

Konstantin Simonov

Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov was a Russian/Soviet author, known especially as a war poet.-Early years:He was born in Petrograd. His mother was born Princess Obolenskaya, of a Rurikid family. His father, an officer in the Tsar's army, left Russia after the Revolution in 1917. He died in Poland...

, and Valentin Kataev

Valentin Kataev

Valentin Petrovich Kataev was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright who managed to create penetrating works discussing post-revolutionary social conditions without running afoul of the demands of official Soviet style. Kataev is credited with suggesting the idea for the Twelve Chairs to his...

, and the Russian/Soviet zoologist Nikolai Knipovich. The hotel provides accommodation for participants in the Northern Festival (the "Polar Olympics") which is held in Murmansk.

In literature

The Arctic is mentioned in the poem "A Toast to Zhenya" by Yuri Iosifovich Vizbor:

External links

• Hotel Arctic at Azimut Hotels website
• Presentation on the renovation project (PDF), see pages 32 – 39.