Sovetsky Hotel, the former Yar Restaurant

The pink building with a colonnade and sculptures on its attic storey stands on Leningradsky Prospekt not far from the racecourse. Its roots go back to the Yar, the loudest out-of-town restaurant of old Moscow, where gypsy choirs sang and merchant society caroused, and among the writers Chekhov and Kuprin were regulars. The house acquired its present appearance in 1910 to a design by Adolf Erichson: at that time it was a luxurious restaurant complex with a winter garden and a concert hall. After the revolution it managed to house a film technical school, a hospital and a pilots' club, and at the beginning of the 1950s the building was rebuilt as the Sovetskaya Hotel, with a heavy portico and a ceremonial driveway added. Since the middle of the last century part of the block has been occupied by the Romen Gypsy Theatre, the only theatre of its kind in the country. The facade reads best from the opposite side of the avenue: a long ribbon of arched windows, niches with sculpted figures, a balustrade along the top and the red letters of the sign above the cornice.

On the map