The Rossiya Hotel (Russian: Россия) was built in Moscow in 1967 at the order of Nikita Khrushchev. At the time of its construction it was the largest hotel in the world; nearly forty years later when it was shut down, it was still the largest in Europe. It had three thousand rooms, a post office, a health club, a nightclub, a movie theater and a barber shop as well as the 2500-seat State Central Concert Hall. The hotel was adjacent to the Red Square, its 21-story tower loomed over the Kremlin walls and the cupolas of Saint Basil's Cathedral. To create space for the enormous edifice, a whole historic district of Moscow, known as Zaryadye, had to be demolished.

The Rossiya Hotel officially closed its doors on January 1, 2006 and was demolished in March to make room for an entertainment complex whose design will be loosely based on the design of the old Zaryadye district it was built over. [1] [2] The site is being designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster and includes plans for a new two thousand room hotel, apartments, and a parking garage. The developer of the site is Shalva Chigirinsky, a Russian oligarch, who also owns Sibir Energy. [3]