The latest love affair between cinema and hotels, The Grand Budapest Hotel,
offers director Wes Anderson’s take on luxury hotel life in the
Hungarian capital. While the actual property only exists in the movie,
hotels just like it can be found throughout the city and offer some of
the best examples of art-nouveau architecture and design of any European
destination �" including Paris.
It’s the hotel name most people will recognize and top luxury address in Hungary. Four Seasons Gresham Palace
presides over the Chain Bridge along the east bank of the Danube
regally facing Buda Castle. Its name comes the London-based insurance
company, Gresham Life, which built it as its global headquarters in
1906. In another 19th Century corporate palace, Boscolo Budapest
occupies what was originally New York Life Insurance that today
features a glamorous 8-story rotunda and New York Café that’s considered
one of the finest examples of Belle Époque architecture anywhere. A bit
more bourgeoisie, Buddha Bar Hotel
finds a rouge-tinted home inside Klotild Palace. Once a Hapsburg
residence, today Klotild Palace is host to French hipsters and lounge
kittens at its Buddha Bar restaurant.
The closest modern comparison for The Grand Budapest would be the Corinthia Budapest
that occupies a dramatic 1886 art nouveau building once home to Grand
Hotel Royal �" Hungary’s finest hotel. Today, it's a posh playground of
gourmet dining, luxury spa and Orpheum cabaret club that once hosted
Josephine Baker. And then there’s Hotel Gellert
situated in a Danube-facing palace that’s an untouched architectural
gem equal parts 3-star hotel and municipal thermal spa that despite its
unrenovated façade is one of Eastern Europe greatest architectural
inspirations.
