A new luxury hotel the Wawelberg Hall opened in the very heart of St. Petersburg, in a historic building looking more like a medieval fortress or the Doge’s Palace in Venice rather than a banking house it used to be during the first years of its existence.
A dream location. Nevsky avenue. A one-minute walk from Palace Square. A two-minute walk from the Hermitage. A three-minute walk from the Isaac square with the Isaac’s Cathedral where you have a great 360-degree viewing platform. A four-minute walk from the best places to see the show of the drawbridges.
The Wawelberg Hall has just 79 rooms. And five stars which is the highest category for a hotel in Russia (all hotels are registered and given a rate in accordance to a state rating system based on numerous criteria).
The spot where the current building stands saw many other buildings that accommodated many various firms and establishments, including a restaurant that was first in Russia to offer a beefsteak.
The building that looks marvelous both inside and outside, with all historic interiors accurately and cautiously kept during the modernization and restoration in 2011-2021, was erected in 1912. It belonged to Michael Wawelberg, the owner of the Wawelberg Banking House, which was founded by brothers Heinrich and Hyppolite Wawelberg in Warsaw in 1846, at the times when Poland was part of the Russian Empire. Upon commissioning the building, Mr. Wawelberg had its bank (the St. Petersburg Merchant Bank) on the first floor (the ground floor), his apartment in the bel étage, with all flats in other stores being rented out.
So, you can say it was a kind of a hotel from scratch. Other companies also had their shops or offices here, including The Russian Renault’s showroom, one of the first car dealers in Russia.
You can see more pictures on the Wawelberg Hall`s Instagram.
After the revolutions of 1917, Michael Wawelberg left Russia. His marvelous house, the symbol of his banking business, was home to numerous entities during Soviet times. The last and the most prominent of the building’s functions was a ticket-office hall of Aeroflot, the Soviet and then Russian leading air carrier. They had been working till the 2000s, and the building is still often referred to as «the ticket-offices of Aeroflot» by locals, even though almost all air tickets in Russia are now sold through the Internet.
Wawelberg’s house is in stark contrast with the architectural style of Nevsky avenue. Decorated with gray granite from outside, its exterior features elements resembling the Doge’s Palace as a two-tier arcade and double windows with arcs. But in an interview, the architect, Marian Peretyatkovich, said he didn’t want to mimic the Doge’s Palace, but use the gothic style ubiquitous seen across northern Italy, in Florence and Bologna.
The luxury translates into prices: the cheapest room for an adult per night right now starts from 22,000 rubles, the most expensive — from a hardly imaginable 729,000 rubles ($10,287). Well, you will easily find a room for 3,000. In Nevsky avenue, too, just as Wawelberg.
Hotel’s address: Nevsky avenue, 7-9 (Nevsky prospekt, in Russian Невский проспект).
The website of the hotel: https://www.wawelberg.com/en
