The abandoned North Crown Hotel

The history of the luxurious hotel "Northern Crown" began in 1988. However, then the Council of Ministers of the USSR planned to build a hotel of the level of "three stars", but the construction became more and more widespread, as a result of which the unfinished building was assigned "five stars".

By 1995, the end of work on the hotel was nearing, but it was never destined to commission the facility. Due to numerous conflicts between changing Russian customers and foreign contractors, the Northern Crown has remained idle to this day.

People who believe in mystical coincidences associate the inglorious fate of the hotel with the fact that in 1995 Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg died of a heart attack. He was invited to a banquet in honor of the fifth anniversary of Bank St. Petersburg, which was also attended by the mayor of the capital Anatoly Sobchak and his wife Lyudmila Narusova. The wife of the head of the city asked the metropolitan blessing. After performing the ceremony, Vladyka John, losing consciousness, slowly settled on the floor. Because of this tragic event, the “Northern Crown” is sometimes called the “cursed hotel”. In about a year, the building will be rebuilt into an elite residential complex.