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What’s the buzz all about? The Palace Hotel in Madrid is a symbol of grandeur. Spanish capital was shaped by kings, dukes, cardinals and generals over the years. The 112-year old Palace underwent a renovation to showcase another side of the Spanish capital: its history as a centre for avant-garde arts and literature.
It is a 470-room metropolis. The hotel was the first in Spain to have en suite bathrooms. The €90mn refurb was about bringing its soul back. The Art Nouveau dome with its stained-glass windows is the heart of this renovated hotel. It rises above a bar in a winter gardens. In the dark days during Spain’s civil conflict, this was the hospital’s operating room. But during the Movida madrileña, It was the site of legendary parties.
The renovation has boosted the hotel’s level of opulence. The pragmatic old Westin Palace Hotel — run under franchise by Marriott — emerged glistening last week as a new member of the same group’s Luxury Collection.
Location, location and location The Palace of Madrid is a Madrid landmark. It is situated at one corner on the Paseo del Prado (one of Europe’s first tree lined urban promenades) and faces its rival, the Mandarin Oriental Ritz. You don’t often hear about the Mandarin Oriental Ritz. madrileños Tourism industry uses the phrase “this stretch of town” Paisaje de la Luz — the Landscape of Light — and it contains a stunning concentration of art and nature. The Palace is only a few minutes walk from Madrid’s great art museums as well the less visited army and naval headquarters and a cluster ministries. Nearby are the botanical garden and the manicured Retiro, which are a wonderful exception in a town that is often more devoted to concrete than trees.
Checking in The atrium is a spacious old-world space with wood paneling and brown marble. The check-in desks and chandelier are discreetly nestled into the walls. It feels a bit like arriving in the early 1900s — and that is the point. The renovators were looking to recreate the ambiance they remembered from the original black-and-white photos of the hotel. The renovation began in June 2023, and the hotel remained open during the entire process.
The presence of the Palace’s owner, Archer Hotel Capital, is marked by just one small regulatory notice. Otherwise the walls are adorned with artwork. There are medieval Flemish tapestries downstairs. And upstairs the green-and-burgundy corridors are lined with funky paintings from interior designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán, inspired by past hotel regulars including Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. In the rooms fusty old carpets have been stripped away. Now nature abounds, whether in Belle Époque gold-leaf wall lights, forest tapestries above bed heads, or a vintage botanical poster painted on floor-to-ceiling shower tiles. The renovation even means that the towels have got plumper.
What to do? Top of many visitors’ lists are the three museums of the “golden triangle of art”: the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. For second-hand books, visitors can browse the down-home stalls lining the Cuesta de Moyano, and for a more grungy shop there’s the Rastro flea market on Sundays. The Palace runs tours of the Barrio de las Letras, the Literary Quarter, whose twisting 16th-century streets contrast with the Paris-style avenues that came later. Flamenco shows and opera at the Teatro Real are popular too. And in this 20-minute city, where a taxi can get you almost anywhere in that time, it’s easy to tour Real Madrid’s revamped, spaceship-like stadium. Match tickets are harder to get, but ask the concierge.
What about the food and drink? The bar beneath the dome is also the dining room, which ensures a bubbly conviviality at meal times. The food is Spanish, but a step up from classic tavern fare. Our leek with romesco sauce and roasted onions was as exquisite as the tuna tartare with caviar. A pork fillet served with apple purée had just the right consistency, but a humdrum entrecôte was disappointingly tough.
An alternative for drinks is the Palace’s charming 27 Club — a speakeasy-style bar named for the Generation of 1927, an influential group of bohemian poets who frequented the hotel, among them Federico García Lorca, Vicente Aleixandre and Luis Cernuda. It serves a “Hemingway” negroni and is as cosy as a manor house library, but sadly it was not insulated from the dance music thumping out of the hotel sound system.
Other guests High-rolling Americans dominate. They account for 40-50 per cent of the guests at the Palace and the city’s other top-end hotels, including young couples, retirees and business people tacking leisure time on to their work trips. In the bustle of the lobby on a recent Saturday evening, American gents in dad jeans and comfortable sneakers brushed shoulders with Spanish guests heading to a wedding reception, the immaculate women wearing sweeping dresses and flowers in their hair.
The damage King-bed rooms start at €550. Suites are €2,200 or more.
Elevator pitch Boho luxe with an artsy twist.
Barney Jopson was a guest of the Palace Hotel Madrid (marriott.com). He is the FT’s Spain and Portugal correspondent, based in Madrid
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