After closing on Tuesday 8 January, the Intourist Hotel in Moscow now awaits demolition. The building, constructed in 1970 is less than a block away from the Kremlin and Red Square, right in the centre and 22 storeys high with 434 rooms.

“We won’t miss it” commented the president of the Russian Academy of Architecture Alexander Kudryavtsev, “it has always been an alien and has distorted the view of the historical city” With Intourist goes one of the city symbols of the soviet era; in its place a lower building will be constructed (12 floors) by 2004.