Anniversary of Premier Hotel Lybid! We are 50!
- 06.12.2020
This year is especially important for us – we have an ANNIVERSARY! Premier Hotel Lybid celebrates its 50th birthday in December! At the time of new hotels and endless constructions, we are proud of our age! Premier Hotel Lybid has gone through several eras and has always tried to keep in step with the times, while not losing its authenticity.
Formerly, the hotel was a part of Soviet Union “Intourist” JSC and accommodated foreign guests. It is not by chance that it was named “Lybid”. It comes from the name of Kyiv princess Lybid, sister of city founders and is related to the name of Lybid River, which now flows close to the hotel, and used to flow directly on its territory many years ago.
On May 02, 1964, Kyiv City Executive Committee issued an order on allocation of area for the construction of a hotel with beds for 500 people and working title “Intourist”.
The construction started in April 1965 and ended in December 1970.
In 1971, a high relief of wrought copper with the image of Princess Lybid was installed at the gable facade. There is a bronze sculpture of famous monument “Flying Lybid” in the hotel lobby.
Premier Hotel Lybid is a 20-storey parallelepiped with a height of 54.7 m and a volume of 49904 m3, located on a 2-storey podium, where the hotel lobby, Lybid Restaurant, lobby bar, conference halls Slavianskyi and Halytskyi are located. The building (width 13.7, length 48 m) is designed in a corridor-type arrangement with rooms located at 2 sides.
The facades are finished with lightweight hinged panels in aluminum frame, encased in marbled glass. The first two floors are faced in natural stone. The entrance to the hotel is emphasized by a massive reinforced concrete canopy with a large overhang. At one time, the 3-star Premier Hotel Lybid was one of the highest in the city.
Finnish elevators and sanitary ware were installed at the opening. The rooms were furnished with German furniture; the walls were also faced with German materials.
There are stalls, selling souvenirs and tobacco products in the hotel lobby. “Soiuzpechat” sold press from “capitalist” countries. There were currency exchange offices and a currency bar.
Relying on historical origin of place and name, the interior of the hotel is based on Ukrainian history plot, embodied in graphics, mosaics and canvases. The large “Slavianskyi” conference hall is decorated with magnificent mosaics and wood carvings. All images capture the history of this place – Cossacks on boats, Nestor the Chronicler and musicians. The mosaic image of Lybid River is striking in its scale. The panel totally occupies one wall of the hall.
There are 2 oil paintings of about 2 meters in size in the hotel lobby. The paintings also feature the images of river and Ukrainian heroes, described in chronicles.
Over the course of 50 years, the Lybid Hotel has taken in many distinguished guests from all over the world – diplomatic delegations, filmmakers, actors, popular singers and musicians. Most of the players of victorious Dynamo Kyiv football team celebrated their weddings there.
In 1998-2002 the hotel was reconstructed. The reconstruction project was developed by “KyivZNDIEP”.
In 2016, the Lybid Hotel became a part of Ukrainian Premier Hotels and Resorts chain and enlarged the collection of business-class hotels, changing its name to Premier Hotel Lybid
2016 – total reconstruction of hotel facade.
2017 – construction of a new Halytskyi Hall on the second floor.
2018 – total reconstruction of 7th floor. The rooms there are equipped with consideration of latest technologies for comfortable accommodation of guests.