Sokos Hotel Viru

59.43658611111124.755019444444Koordinaten: 59 ° 26 ' 12 " N, 24 ° 45' 18" O

The Sokos Hotel Viru is a hotel in the Estonian capital Tallinn and with its more than 74 meters, the first skyscraper of Tallinn. The building was until 1980, apart from the church towers, the tallest in the city.

Hotel and Location

The hotel is located next to the old, ( Estonian Viru värav; historical German name Lehmpforte ) 100 steps from the Viru Gate Tallinn city wall, 550 m from the Town Hall Square ( Town Hall Square ), about 0.5 km from the passenger port and 4 km away from the Tallinn airport.

The hotel has 516 rooms, including 3 suites and 25 junior suites, 2 restaurants ( " Merineitsi " on the first floor and " Amarillo " on the ground floor ), bars, conference rooms and the night club " Amigo " in the basement.

History

The building was built in 1972 by Finnish companies, as well as many other hotels in the Soviet Union, where the modern building lacked the appropriate experience. The grand opening of the hotel took place on 5 May 1972.

The project was designed by the Estonian architects Henno Sepmann and Mart Port, the interior of Väino Tamm, V. Asi, L. Raudsepp, T. Gans, K. Laanemaa. Designers were Pall U. and K. Soonike.

Viru hotell served as Inter Hotel. In it, guests were mainly housed in the non- socialist countries, especially Finnish tourists. Among the prominent guests were sleeping Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his wife, the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong, the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova of the world, Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor and the Russian- Soviet singer and composer Alla Pugacheva ..

From the time as Inter Hotel witness the wiretaps that the KGB had installed in the hotel. This allowed many rooms are monitored acoustically and visually. The decommissioned monitoring center of the Soviet secret can still be seen on the 23rd floor of the hotel today.

Until the completion of the hotel Olümpia to the sailing competitions of the 1980 Summer Olympics Viru was the only hotel in Tallinn with international standard.