Skincare treatments use L’amia Natura cosmetics, a Hungarian boutique brand that uses certified organic ingredients. At the heart of the spa is the WET pool, flanked by rest areas and treatment rooms. Its labyrinthine corridors echo a hall of mirrors–a tribute to the Hungarian-born illusionist Harry Houdini–with mirrored panels and the second skin metallic mesh elements that complement the vaulted ceilings, stucco, and tile details remaining the building’s original features. Then there are the Extreme WOW and WOW suites overlooking the opera house on the other side of the road, inspired by black and white swans of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (but the black and white theme may also evoke pieces on a chessboard).Ī Spa Captured in an Illusion The "Away Spa" resides in the basement offering tailor-made services ranging from quick beauty treatments to longer treatments. The bathrooms play game between chess and ballet, with chessboard tiles lining the floors and walls. Some rooms are fitted with unique lamps resembling the swirl of a ballerina’s skirt or dressing tables rimmed with bulbs evoking the changing rooms of the opera house facing the hotel from the opposite side of the street. Rooms on the top floor pay homage to Zsolnay tiles in their window design–Zsolnay ceramic ornaments had been used on the original rooftop by Lechner, which was damaged by fire in the early 1900s–while most rooms in the hotel incorporate the aforementioned ballet and chess elements. Even in the design of its 151 rooms and suites, you’ll find echoes of the building’s ballet heritage, as well as several aesthetic nods to chess–a game played by locals in Budapest’s opulent thermal baths–in the checkered elements you’ll find adorning the bathrooms and floor details.Ĭapturing a Retro Glamour and Modern Design in its RoomsEach room is uniquely designed and fitted with bespoke furniture. The spectacular arched corridor leads you to the heart of the former palace to a courtyard enclosed by a glass roof that shows off the neo-Renaissance architecture all year round. An interplay of materials and textures can be found in all the hotel’s corners, choreographing the building’s original historical elements with a modern playfulness that characterises the W Hotel brand. At the same time, the golden mesh, a second skin, gently buffers the restored architecture with a modern twist. With Hungarian Bánáti + Hartvig Studio heading up the architectural renovations and British designers Bowler James Brindley handling the interior design, the W Hotel offers guests a downtown sanctuary where modernity and luxury interplay with history and the arts that caters to a new generation of luxury travellers looking for elegance in the unexpected.Ī Love Letter to a City and its Cultural Past Stepping through the main entrance carries you through an arched corridor lined with kaleidoscopic stained-glass windows and vaulted ceilings decorated with blue star-like motifs, revealing the building’s historical splendour. Despite being a landmark built by Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos in the 1880s, occupying prime real estate on Budapest’s most elegant boulevard, Andrássy Avenue–a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right–facing the Hungarian National Opera, the building that once housed the former Ballet Institute closed its doors in the early 2000s, only for them to reopen again in 2023.Īlthough there had been several plans to renovate it and open it as a hotel by various hotel brands, the listed building finally got a new lease of life when the W Hotel Chain acquired it in 2017 when it began construction to restore the building to its original glory. The lights in the Drechsler Palace had been off and its windows boarded up for over a decade.
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