Hotel Bristol (Copenhagen)
Encyclopedia
Hotel Bristol, also known as Absalons Gaard after a later owner, is a former hotel located on the City Hall Square in Copenhagen
, Denmark
.
, were designed by the architect Vilhelm Fischer, who won an architectural competition, and built from 1901 to 1902 as Hotel Bristol. In 1932 a third wing, designed by Waldemar Schmidt, was built along Vestergade.
The Hotel Bristol closed in 1917 after a bankrupcy caused by a fire.
on the ground storey. The most destinctive feature of the building is its tower which stands 50 metres tall and is capped by a copper roof.
with an alibi following his 1936 Show Trial
. Tolstoy was accused of plotting against Joseph Stalin
at the cafe of the Bristol in Copenhagen where Eduard Holzman confessed to meeting both him and his son Sergei Sedov
. Danish newspapers could afterwards report that the hotel had been closed since the fire in 1917. The details have been laid out in 'Leon Trotsky and the Hotel Bristol That Never Was', chapter 9, in High Times at the Hotel Bristol, a book about incidents at Hotel Bristol
s sround the world.
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.
As a hotel
Hotel Bristol was built in two stages. The first two wings, along the City Hall Square and FrederiksberggadeStrøget
Strøget is a carfree zone in Copenhagen, Denmark. This popular tourist attraction in the centre of town is the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe....
, were designed by the architect Vilhelm Fischer, who won an architectural competition, and built from 1901 to 1902 as Hotel Bristol. In 1932 a third wing, designed by Waldemar Schmidt, was built along Vestergade.
The Hotel Bristol closed in 1917 after a bankrupcy caused by a fire.
Later occupants
After the closure, the building became the new headquarters of Absalon, an insurance company founded in 1909, and changed its name to Absalons Gård (en. House of Absalon). Later the newspaper Aktuelt was based there.Architecture
The three-wing building is constructed in red brick with granite rusticationRustication (architecture)
thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...
on the ground storey. The most destinctive feature of the building is its tower which stands 50 metres tall and is capped by a copper roof.
Trotsky and Hotel Bristol
Hotel Bristol provided Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
with an alibi following his 1936 Show Trial
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
. Tolstoy was accused of plotting against Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
at the cafe of the Bristol in Copenhagen where Eduard Holzman confessed to meeting both him and his son Sergei Sedov
Sergei Sedov
Sergei Lvovich Sedov was Leon Trotsky's younger son by his second wife, Natalia Sedova, and an engineer. He was killed in the Great Purges.Sedov was a Moscow-based engineer who published works on thermodynamics and diesel engines...
. Danish newspapers could afterwards report that the hotel had been closed since the fire in 1917. The details have been laid out in 'Leon Trotsky and the Hotel Bristol That Never Was', chapter 9, in High Times at the Hotel Bristol, a book about incidents at Hotel Bristol
Hotel Bristol
There are more than 200 hotels around the world called Bristol. Italy has the most, with more than 50, France has around 30. They range from the grand European hotels, such as Hôtel Le Bristol Paris and the Bristol in Vienna to budget hotels, such as the SRO Bristol in San Francisco...
s sround the world.
Other incidents
- The internationally renowned Danish actor Valdemar PsilanderValdemar PsilanderValdemar Psilander was a Danish silent film actor, who was the highest paid performer of his period and received critical acclaim as the greatest male lead during the golden era of Danish cinema.-Early life:...
died in the hotel while he stayed there as a guest in 1917.
External links
- Copenhagen and Hotel Bristol in the Trotsky trials