Vilnius' Soviet-Era Spy Hotel

[@tamolamo4698]

I once herd a joke about this hotel that in one of the rooms celling fell down, but no one got hurt since ceiling stayed hanging on wires from surveillance equipment.

[@algirdasltu1389]

What did i iust read 😂

[@Malibas]

There even was a joke, that hotel was built from microconcrete - half concrete / half microphones :)

[@Prodigeris]

I once heard a joke that if you sneeze in your room and even you’re alone, there’s always someone to tell you ‘bless you’

[@truethera]

i can tell you fully how KGB bugged the houses and flats of all resistance movement supporters, backing to the days of Lietuvos Laisves Lyga. I had to debug our house twice a week. It was fun.

[@travelvideos]

Those foreign tourists were mostly emigrants from the US and Canada and their children who wanted to visit their homeland. The KGB probably wanted to know what they were talking about because they could not go beyond the capital city-visiting hometowns, family graves, etc. On a positive note, Intourist tourists were taken around on Ikarus 250 buses, which were my absolute favorite at that time. I spent most summers of my childhood traveling around on the Ikarus 250.

[@tom4stream]

The hotel for Lithuanian Americans and - Canadians was "Gintaras" ("Panorama" nowadays). Guests from capitalist countries were rare at hotel "Lietuva": this hotel was frequented by tour groups from socialist lager countries like Bulgaria and Romania; the latter guests were (in)famous for bringing in what the "Lietuva" staff called "Ceausescu gifts" ("Čaušesku dovanėlės"): lice.

[@anne-kristine120]

Thank you very much for this video. Interesting. Even though the German Democratic Republic wasn't part of the Soviet Union, they had a similar hotel in Warnemünde/Rostock, hotel Neptun. More floors were only for Stasi, not for guests! Especially western visitors stayed at Neptun. There must have been a similar hotel in East Berlin. Greetings from Denmark 🇩🇰

[@DodoGTA]

2:37 This looks suspiciously close to that abandoned hotel in Chisinau, Moldova 🇲🇩

[@Ellenellen089]

My Father celebrated his first wedding in the "Sky Bar", back in the day it was a real deal 😂

[@pontiuspilates]

There is another one in Vilnius, now called Crowne Plaza. And there are more of these 'spy' hotels in other cities too. Similar ones can be found in Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Marijampolė...

[@iaintaylor5585]

I worked on the privatisation - legal work for the government. I never stayed in it in the 90s but did stay in smaller places (like the Neringa and Astorija) before they were privatised and modernised. I have stayed in the Viru in Tallinn but always avoided the Latvija in Rīga because it had an unfortunate reputation back in the 90s.

[@seanshepard2000]

You should do a deep-dive into the hotel (that was nevef finished) in Kaunas, near (actually right next to) Akropolis. I know that in the last 4-5 years or so, it's completely gone (replaced by glass monstrosities) but it was always a place I would stop and mavel at (for no particualr reason) on every trip I made to Kaunas. It was a very large building that looked like it was, maybe, 40% finished ... I was told that it was being built during the Soviet time, but when Lithuania declared its independence, the workers simply stopper - it always made an impression on me that this building, that people had clearly worked hard on, was just abandoned mid-way through the project. Honestly, I've heard some different stories over the years from people about the how's, when's, and why's, but I've never been able to find anything "official" regarding this building. I'm glad to have some pics, still, that I took over the years of it (in the same state as when people left it, probably in 1989), but it would be cool to hear the REST of the story ....

[@amberandgold]

@seanshepard2000 I see, your comment is 4 month old already, but still... Regarding that former Inturist hotel in Kaunas. There is no much depth to dive in, so to say, nothing interesting or surprising. It had to be another Inturist hotel called "Respublika", or "Respublikos viešbutis". Designed in 1985, construction started in 1988. All official information (not mentioning articles in official media) can be found on the website of Architektūros ir urbanistikos tyrimų centras, however i doubt if external links are allowed here. That is, i don‘t know if they are allowed. The center is in LT, and the short version of its name is autc, so you can find the website yourself. Then enter the word "Respublika" into the search line, and one of the results will be the one we‘re talking about. If you enter the word "Respublikos", then there will be 5 pages among search results, and the one we are interested in will be on the page 5. Website‘s english version has same structure and article pages but no text in the articles. At least in some of them.

[@Grulaz]

Respublika? I thought he was talking about britanika

[@amberandgold]

@@Grulaz The one "next to Akropolis" was Respublika. Britanika is further away, and i suspect it still exists.

[@Grulaz]

@@amberandgold tai aišku kad yra užvakar Kaune buvau stovi visdar tas griozdas bet įdomu ar dar ilgai stovės kažkaip respublika tai atsikratė

[@AngryMarrow]

We also have a soviet built hotel, which turned into Radison here in Tbilisi, Georgia

[@FizWiz91]

Interesting. Who would have thought? I never even imagined that the building was that old.

[@MrAxnavara]

I work in Viesnica Latvija actually interesting that Reval took control of Latvija too back then when they took over Lietuva p sure same year or before that even. I can't really find data on that though but I wish I could I visited hotel in early 2000s p sure exactly in 2000 or 2001 when Riga turned 800 but one thing that skips my mind is height of the building then I think since reconstruction was finished in 2001 I think it already was 27 floor hotel skyline bar is on 26th floor I'm not sure I can talk about stuff like where kitchens are located etc..

[@mostunicorn]

I often notice this building. It's just so different from the surroundings.

[@brianrodgers4636]

Yes, I spent a lot of time there in 1996. :)

[@Anty_Praza]

I lived across from that radisson blue and thought that it was built in 2000s...

[@jdtravel178]

Keep it up Brother ❤

[@DM-oi4tr]

Interesting

[@vaidotast]

That's cool, I didn't know that :)

[@Armadeus]

interesting bit of info haha, just as i was looking into hotels in vilnius and almost settling on radisson blu...might have to rethink that one! /lh

[@MrAxnavara]

radisson hotels are safe nowadays like all of that shit has been scrubbed long before Radisson got hold of them technically I can speak about Radisson Blu Latvia where I work but if any of this would be exposed in modern times instantly the whole hotel chain would be in too much trouble the background of all we need to pass just to be fully fledged employees is insane and the seriousness in Radisson about GDPR is insane.

[@tarasbolotov2486]

Is Antanas Celofanas still Illegally imprisoned by the corrupt corporate system ?.that is in Lithuania ? is not ?

[@utubesu]

🎉

[@HRU202]

How much can students make from working in Bolt delivery in vilnius?

[@truethera]

depends what means you will do, summer best for bicycle and scooter, winter best for car deliveries. You can earn up to around 1200 euros (after taxes) if you work longer hours and put yourself into it.

[@xEroxSennin]

Umm im pretty sure that flag in your thumbnail is illegal in LT. Idk about utube policies, but nazi and soviet stuff is banned here.

[@emilpoklad1275]

Not for informational purposes

[@cheapgames4373]

we got one in siauliai btw

[@vytautasracys5165]