Inns (entry)

Categories / City Services/Housing and Communal Services
INNS. Establishments featuring apartments and rooms for lodgers, as well as dining halls (similar to modern hotels). In the early 18th century kharchevnies (taverns) were also called inns or traktirs (Avsteria, Krasny Kabachok). The first Petersburg inn is probably the tavern on Troitskaya Square (1719), where guests could "find living quarters to match their money". In the early 18th century, quarters for merchants were also located in gostiny dvors, or guest courtyards. In 1723, the two first state-sponsored inns appeared (on Peterburgskaya Side, near the Gagarinskaya Landing, and on the opposite bank of the Neva River), and according to a decree issued on 10 July 1723, all city guests were ordered to stay only at newly built inns. In 1736, there were 74 private and state-run inns in St. Petersburg; their work was regulated by the decree of 1746, limiting the number of inns (taverns) to 30, and ordering them to be named "herbergs" (as opposed to drinking-houses, pubs or taverns). The City Regulation of 1785 allowed merchants to open taraktirs, herbergs and inns. In late 18th century St. Petersburg, there were several large inns, such as the London (Heydenreich's Traktir, 1 Nevsky Prospect, the building has not survived), the Paris City (8/23 Malaya Morskaya Street), Demoute’s Traktir and many smaller inns. At the end of the 18th century, concerts and lotteries were regularly held at inns, a tradition which was maintained in the 19th century (the concert halls of the Demoute Tavern). In the 19th century, the name "inn" was used along with the word traktir and other names (traktir house, guest hotel, rooming-house, furnished apartments). In the 18th and 19th centuries, inns (traktir) were rated as top-rank establishments (kharchevnies, kabaks and other establishments were of lower rank). In the mid 1860s, there were 67 inns in St. Petersburg; after 1917 only the name "hotel" was used.

References: Дунин А. А. К истории трактира на Руси // Наша старина. 1915. № 5. С. 448-459; Богданов И. А. Старейшие гостиницы Петербурга. СПб., 2001.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 23/8
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Troitskaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Дунин А. А. К истории трактира на Руси // Наша старина, 1915
Богданов И. А. Старейшие гостиницы Петербурга. СПб., 2001 Avsteria Traktir
Krasny Kabachok, tavern
Demoute's Traktir
Demoute's Traktir