Art Hotels

Six hotels in European cities stand in buildings that were made for something else: an electricity company office, a row of houses, a palace by a bridge, a nineteenth-century block on a main avenue, a service building in a palace park and a corner house near a city square. Each entry says what the building was and what it now holds.

A tall panelled room with painted walls and high windows in an old European building.

The entries

Sommerro

Oslo, Norway

Art Hotel · Checked August 2026

A corner block in stone with tall windows, seen from the pavement in daylight.

The house

The building was the head office of the city electricity company, and the hotel keeps a good deal of what that use left behind: the public baths and pool in the basement, the murals, the stair halls and the heavy stone front on the corner. Above them are guest rooms, several restaurants and bars, and a cinema hall that belongs to the same block.

The streets around

Frogner is a quiet residential quarter west of the centre, laid out in wide streets of five-storey blocks. The palace park is a short walk east and the sculpture park a similar distance north-west. Trams pass the corner, and the harbour front is reached on foot in about twenty minutes.

One thing to ask

Ask ahead whether the pool and the bath rooms are open to hotel guests on the days you are there, since they are shared with a members' club. The cinema and the roof floor keep their own programme, and the restaurants take bookings from outside the house as well.

Hotel Maria

Helsinki, Finland

Art Hotel · Checked August 2026

Joined nineteenth-century house fronts along a quiet city block.

The house

Several nineteenth-century houses on one block were joined behind their old fronts to make this hotel. The street elevations were kept, while the floors behind them were rebuilt, so the plan runs through what were separate buildings. Inside there are guest rooms of differing shapes, a courtyard, a restaurant and bar, a library room and a spa floor with a pool below ground.

The streets around

The block stands in Kaartinkaupunki, between the market square and the Kaivopuisto park, in a district of embassies and older apartment houses. The cathedral and the harbour are within a short walk, and the ferry quays for the island fortress lie at the end of the same street pattern. Trams run along the nearby avenue.

One thing to ask

Ask which room shapes are available, because the joined houses give very different plans on the same floor. It is also worth asking about the spa hours and about the courtyard, which is used for events at some times of year and may not be open to walk through.

Matild Palace

Budapest, Hungary

Art Hotel · Checked August 2026

A decorated palace front facing a river bridge.

The house

One of the two palaces that stand either side of the road at the Pest end of the Elizabeth Bridge, this house was built as an apartment palace and later worked as offices and a café. It is now a hotel with restored stair halls and ceilings, guest rooms on the upper floors, a bar in the former café rooms and a spa in the basement.

The streets around

The building faces the bridge and the river, with the hill and the citadel on the far bank. Behind it the streets of the old town run towards the market hall and the university quarter. The riverside tram passes close by, and the walk along the embankment reaches the parliament in half an hour.

One thing to ask

Ask which rooms face the bridge, since the road across it carries traffic through the night and the front and rear of the house are quite different in that respect. Ask too whether the ground-floor rooms are open to visitors, as parts of them are let for private use.

Raffles Europejski Warsaw

Warsaw, Poland

Art Hotel · Checked August 2026

A long classical facade along a wide city avenue.

The house

The house was built as a hotel in the middle of the nineteenth century on the city's main avenue, was ruined in the war and rebuilt afterwards for other uses before returning to hotel work. It now holds guest rooms, a brasserie on the ground floor, a bar and a long-running collection of paintings by Polish artists hung through the public rooms.

The streets around

Krakowskie Przedmieście is the processional street that links the old town with the university and the presidential palace, and the hotel stands on its western side. The Saxon Garden is behind the building, and the reconstructed market square is a walk of about fifteen minutes north along the same route.

One thing to ask

Ask whether the paintings in the public rooms can be seen without a stay, since some of the spaces holding them are used for private functions. If quiet matters, ask about rooms away from the avenue, which carries traffic and, on national days, marches and gatherings.

Hôtel Le Grand Contrôle

Versailles, France

Art Hotel · Checked August 2026

An eighteenth-century stone building beside a formal garden terrace.

The house

The house is an eighteenth-century building at the edge of the palace grounds, put up for the office that handled royal finances and standing beside the orangery. It was restored and opened as a small hotel with a limited number of rooms, a dining room, a library and a cellar spa. The rooms are furnished in the manner of the period the building comes from.

The streets around

The building sits at the southern corner of the palace estate, so the orangery terraces and the ornamental lake are immediately below the windows. The town station and the market quarter are a walk of about a quarter of an hour, and the park gates give onto the canal and the wooded avenues beyond.

One thing to ask

Ask what access to the estate a stay includes and at which hours, because the arrangement depends on the palace and not on the hotel. Ask as well about the dining room, which keeps a fixed pattern of service and may be closed to visitors from outside the house.

The Madrid EDITION

Madrid, Spain

Art Hotel · Checked August 2026

A rebuilt corner block on a small square in a city centre.

The house

A corner block near the Puerta del Sol was rebuilt behind its front to make this house. The lower floors are given over to public rooms: a lobby that runs the depth of the building, a bar, two restaurants and a roof level with a terrace and a pool. Guest rooms take the floors above, and the house belongs to an international group.

The streets around

Plaza de Celenque is a small square off the main pedestrian streets between Sol and the opera house. The royal palace is a short walk west, the Prado a longer one east, and the market hall of San Miguel lies between the two. The streets around the building are busy from mid-morning until late.

One thing to ask

Ask whether the roof level and the pool are open to guests at the hours you expect, since both are used for events and can be closed at short notice. The restaurants are popular with people who are not staying, so a table is worth arranging by email in advance.

Please note

This site is independent and for reference only. Descriptions come from open sources and from the hotels' own published pages, and buildings change hands, close for work and reopen with different rooms. The site is not connected to any hotel named here, sells nothing and takes no bookings. Write to the house to confirm anything that matters to your stay.

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