One of the oldest architectural monuments in Donetsk is the "Great Britain" hotel, located on Postysheva Street. Not many know that famous writers and poets have stayed here at different times.

The hotel building was constructed in 1880 or 1883, the exact year is unknown. Initially, it was two stories high, but in 1891 a third floor was added, making the building one of the tallest in the city. For a long time, it was the only hotel in Donetsk.

The owner of the hotel was the Yuzovka entrepreneur Haim Sobolev, who can be considered a local oligarch. The hotel was adjacent to a cinema with 350 seats, known as "Sobolev's Illusion." In addition to the hotel and cinema, Sobolev owned a mineral water factory and a lumber warehouse.

The hotel is interesting because many famous writers and poets stayed there. Before the revolution, Alexander Kuprin visited here as a correspondent for Kyiv newspapers. During the Soviet era, the hotel hosted the correspondent of the "Priazovsky Krai" newspaper, Alexander Serafimovich, writer Konstantin Paustovsky, who worked at the Yuzovka factory, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, and many other notable figures, such as engineers Bardin and Pavlov. At that time, the hotel was the only one in the city and welcomed many celebrities.

The hotel is even mentioned in Russian literature: Paustovsky described it in his book "A Tale of Life," dedicating an entire chapter to it. He wrote: "Its walls were painted the color of dirty meat. But the hotel owner found this boring. He ordered the walls to be covered with the fashionable decadent painting of the time, with white and lilac irises and flirtatious heads of women peeking out from water lilies."

In the Soviet years, the hotel suffered greatly, but in our time it has been restored, and it is once again used for its original purpose.