The luxury hotel brand opens its first hotel in Central and Eastern Europe in the former Drechsler Palace on the prestigious Andrássy Avenue in Budapest this July.
The lights in the Drechsler Palace had been off and its windows boarded up for over a decade. 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.
Although 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. 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.
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. At the same time, the golden mesh, a second skin, gently buffers the restored architecture with a modern twist. 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. 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. 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.
Each room is uniquely designed and fitted with bespoke furniture. 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. 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. The bathrooms play game between chess and ballet, with chessboard tiles lining the floors and walls. 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).
The "Away Spa" resides in the basement offering tailor-made services ranging from quick beauty treatments to longer treatments. 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. At the heart of the spa is the WET pool, flanked by rest areas and treatment rooms. Skincare treatments use L’amia Natura cosmetics, a Hungarian boutique brand that uses certified organic ingredients. Guests can also use the FIT fitness centre.
W Budapest offers culinary delights with Nightingale, the hotel’s signature restaurant named after Igor Stravinsky’s opera of the same name and the tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Asian tastes inspire the cuisine with a curious fusion of seasonal Mediterranean flavours. The W Lounge on the ground floor, adorned with twisted turquoise ceramics and coral hues, serves curious cocktails to guests who can enjoy DJ sets from Hungarian and Budapest-based DJs. Hidden in the basement behind the spa, you’ll find the hotel’s own “speakeasy”, offering a blend of history and mystery for those who can find it.
W Budapest brings the historic building that once saw Gustav Mahler and Giacomo Puccini among its guests with a reimagined vision that blends history with modernity and Budapest with the rest of the world. It opens to guests in July 2023. Bookings can be made here.
