Žilina Gallery :: Fotogaléria mesta Žiliny

70 – Hotel Polom (Rémi), P. O. Hviezdoslavova Street 22 in Žilina

Turistická informačná tabuľka č. 70 s QR kódom na budove hotela Polom
(Foto: 7. 7. 2013)

Henrich Rémi bought land located opposite the railway station from Karl Grün, a building contractor, and built a beautiful art nouveau two-storey hotel called Rémi in 1907. Before World War I, there were six hotels in Žilina, a town of ten thousand inhabitants, but the Rémi with its thirty rooms, central heating and electric lighting was the most prestigious of them.

Henrich Rémi died in 1928 and the hotel was later owned by his children Alfréd and Šarlota. In those days the hotel was a dominant feature of the city and for a time the cafe became an important meeting place for Slovak nationalists. Originally the hotel had two floors and an upper basement, where there were also shops, such as Kadlec the butcher’s, Gros and Ring enterprise – an ironmongers and builders’ supplies, Jozef Kohn’s which sold and repaired umbrellas, and Ocularium, an opticians. In 1924 the hotel was rebuilt to face onto Hviezdoslava Street, but the most significant reconstruction took place in 1928, when a third floor plus attic, in fact, the fourth floor, was added.

It was designed in Purist style by Jozef Konrád, a great Functionalist architect from Bratislava. In 1931, a veranda was added to the first floor facing the railway station. It was later demolished in 1950 and rebuilt in 2013. Once it had been extended the hotel had 85 rooms. In 1945 the hotel was temporarily renamed the Moscow before becoming the good old Rémi again. It was nationalised in 1950 and subsequently renamed the Polom in 1951. It was extensively renovated in 1951, and opened up a self-service restaurant in the basement for customers. It was most recently reconstructed in 2007 and became the "BEST WESTERN PLUS Palace Hotel Polom****".

Source: Peter Štanský a Milan Novák. Text prevzatý z webovej stránky TIK Žilina (kliknite): www.tikzilina.eu.