The Hotel’s history began in early XIX century when at the corner of Gubernatorskaya Street and Sobornaya Square (today Lenin Street and Svoboda Square) a 2-storey hotel was built. The Hotel enjoyed such a huge success among travelers and boheme of Minsk, that the artist Yuzef Peshka (1767 — 1831) even captured it on one of his watercolours as Minsk’s sightseeing attraction. In 1884 the Hotel turned into a 3-storey building and became the name “Hotel Europe”. In 1906-1908 the Hotel was renovated in Modern Style, got 6-storey and became an impressive frontage design. At that time it was the highest building of Minsk and the largest hotel of the Northwestern Region. The Hotel offered 130 rooms with electricity, phones, bathtubs and hot water. There was a first-class restaurant with Romanian and Viennese girl bands, the first elevator in entire Minsk, men’s and ladies’ hairdressing salon, Vilno Commercial Bank branch, a bookstore with all the latest bestsellers, a library and various shops. The guests were picked up at the railway station by a festive carriage or a car. In 1925 the Hotel was renamed into Central Hotel of Ministry of Communal Services. In 1939 it became a part of Intourist Hotel chain. But during World War II it was completely destroyed. In 2004 Minsk City Administration was put in by the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to manage the restoration of Hotel’s building and turn it into a five-star hotel. The design project was based on Modern Style of early XX century. In 2006 the resurrected Hotel Europe, built with the latest technologies and equipped with the most up-to-date facilities, began its new life. Info from here I have been on visit to Belarus and Minsk and this is one of the photos I took. I didn´t stay at this hotel, its a little bit to expensive for me ;) Got a lot of photos of this beautiful town so stay tuned for more... Photo taken with Olympus sp560uz. Hope you like it and thanks for watching