Odesa, Hotel Bristol, 1898-1899

The Hotel Bristol, designed by Aleksandr Bernardazzi in collaboration with his colleague Adolf Minkus and the participation of the Ticinese sculptor Marco Molinari, and built at the end of the 19th century on the corner of Pushkina and Bunina Streets, came into being as a consequence of the construction, on the opposite side of the street, of the New Stock Exchange (1894-1899). The presence of such an important building for Odesa’s commercial life in fact induced the owner of the lot, Naum Yurovskyi, to join forces with Michail Sinitsyn to create a first-class hotel structure, entrusting its design to Bernardazzi, author of the New Stock Exchange (see the entry). Behind the exuberant neo-Baroque decoration of the façades designed by the architect, hid one of the most modern hotels in terms of guest comfort, with a lift and central heating (used here for the first time in Odesa) and a hundred or so rooms distributed over four floors (also a first for the city). Electric lighting, toilets on each floor, a telephone line and the presence of polyglot hotel staff were other features much appreciated by guests. The upper part of the building is now altered from its original conformation, due to the loss of the roofing that crowned the balconies at the corner of the two streets and the central prominence along Pushkinska Street.

Author: Guillaume Nicoud
Version dated: 02.07.2022