Spasskaya Street
Spasskaya Street
Spasskaya Street, one of the oldest streets in the city, is first mentioned in the act books of the middle of the 17th-18th centuries. At the beginning of the twentieth century on Spasskaya Street, in addition to the tobacco  factory, there was a printing house of B. Feiginov, photography studio of F. Dobrovolsky and Gustav von Douglas, the Slavyanskaya, London, Bristol, Golden Anchor hotels, furnished rooms, visiting houses – all these were located here. Continue one block to the intersection of Zamkovy Proezd with Lenin  Street. Here are the buildings of three hotels of the early 20th century. To the right is the former Bristol Hotel, of red brick with white trim, now a residential building. Across from the “Bristol”, on the other side of the street we see the “London” Hotel, now the sports and tourism department. Heads of lions remain above the windows of the first floor. The owner of this hotel was the merchant Ginzburg. Opposite the "London" is the former hotel "Grand Hotel", with the main facade overlooking the former Vitebskaya Street, the current Francysk Skaryna Avenue, where we will return by turning left to Lenin Street. On our right is the former “Grand Hotel”, which belonged to the merchant Bakaev. The hotel was considered the best in the city. A hotel room cost about 3 rubles. It had no running water or sewerage. The room had a bed, a washstand with a table, a fireplace and a Dutch stove for heating the room in cold weather. The “Grand Hotel” had a dining room and buffet.After the revolution, the council of workers' and peasants' deputies was located in the hotel building. The building was badly damaged during the First World War and the Soviet-Polish War. When Polotsk was under German occupation, a casino was set up in the hotel. With the liberation of Belarus, Polotsk became a regional center and the “Grand Hotel” became the place where the regional executive committee was located for some time. In the modern era of the city,  educational institutions were located in the building. Thanks to the new investors who are renovating the building, the “Grand Hotel” will reappear in Polotsk.
As seen on
Jewish streets of Polotsk
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