Today’s the day Vienna’s high society has been waiting for, the official opening of ROSEWOOD VIENNA. After it opens entirely in September the Austrian capital will have a new-luxury hotel that is just right for new-look super luxury..
Rosewood Vienna has heritage. Five adjacent historic buildings on Petersplatz dating back to the 15th century have been converted as a whole to form a 99-key hotel. The former headquarters of Erste Bank, which had started life as Erste österreichische Spar-Casse in 1815. Erste Group Bank today, with market cap of €9.70 billion, is now making its first investment in the hotel space – Group Chairman Stefan Dörfler, a mathematician, has obviously worked out it is well worth spending on style.
Take the gold leaf ceiling overhead as you check in upstairs, on the first floor. Move to the next room, to a 16-seat parlour, Aurelie, its walls a complete fantasia of flora and fauna hand-painted, in situ, by local artist Marie Hartig, inspired by Vienna’s Palmenhaus. Go further up, to the rooftop indoor-outdoor Neue Hoheit Brasserie. Wienerschnitzel and Ottakringer, or a chilled crystal coupe of Roederer (that’s what hotel MD Alexander Lahmer suggested, see the image above).
To heritage add zany-today. Who would think, bearing in mind Austria’s long winters, it was worth investing in a modern eyrie, mostly outdoors? Erste Group did. So the six floor rooftop now looks up, to a usurper floor above.
Of course this place has typical Rosewood style. Room sizes range from 31sq m up to the 91q m one-bedroom Suite 567, named for one of the five original houses. Designer Alexander Waterworth did ROSEWOOD BERMUDA and he seems to have been well versed in Rosewood nuance. No sock-it-to-you colours here. Blends of hues, backgrounds for, say, slippers covered in the same fabrics as drapes, and up to 12 thoughtfully-chosen hardbacks. At night turndown, there’s a new informa-book by a local artisan, say seventh generation bespoke shoemaker Markus Scher.
You can buy shoes, or whatever, within a few minutes’ walk of the hotel. Louis Vuitton is a neighbour and every brand under the luxury sun is within minutes’ walk And for more of the experiences that new luxury demands, the Spanish Riding School and, also, the Opera House are under ten minutes, by car – or horse-drawn carriage.
