Hotel Marinela Sofia

Hotel Marinela Sofia
General information
Type Hotel
Location Sofia, Bulgaria
Coordinates 42°40′20″N 23°19′7″E / 42.67222°N 23.31861°E / 42.67222; 23.31861Coordinates: 42°40′20″N 23°19′7″E / 42.67222°N 23.31861°E / 42.67222; 23.31861
Completed 1979
Height
Antenna spire 98 m (322 ft)
Roof 90 m (300 ft)
Technical details
Floor count 22
Design and construction
Architect Kisho Kurokawa

Hotel Marinela Sofia is a 5-star hotel located in Lozenets, near downtown Sofia, Bulgaria. It was one of the most luxurious hotels in the capital of Bulgaria. With 442 guest rooms, 10 conference rooms, 4 restaurants, 2 bars and the chalga bar - the former unique and only Japanese garden in the Balkans.[1]

The hotel was built as the Vitosha New Otani by the Japanese New Otani Hotels chain[2] between 1974 and 1979 to the design of leading Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa (1934–2007) in the upper-class neighbourhood Lozenets. In his design, Kurokawa implemented architectural details inspired by the Bulgarian National Revival style of Koprivshtitsa and Plovdiv. The 21-storey hotel was built by Bulgarian company Tehnoeksportstroy and the Japanese Mitsubishi.[2] Its Japanese garden was a large-scale copy of the one at the original Hotel New Otani Tokyo and featured a Japanese-style house and lake. Since 2015 the new owners removed the Japanese cherries from the garden and replaced them with palm trees, and after the huge reaction from the media with fake cherry trees. Then the owner Vulcho (Vetko) Arabdjiev proceeded with illegal constructions (more than a dozen warnings from the local authorities were issued to stop the construction, but were ignored) changing the original appearance of the hotel, switching it from the original Kurokawa style to a pseudo-classical-new-baroque style, deforming and destroying the unique architecture of the building.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Hotel". Kempinski Hotel Zografski Sofia. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  2. 1 2 3 Илиева, Росица (2007-11-14). "Пет от най-емблематичните сгради на българската соц архитектура" (in Bulgarian). Капитал. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
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