The Most Stylish Boutique Hotels in Eastern Europe by Ken Scrudato
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Romantik Hotel U Raka ('At the Crayfish')
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Before a recent visit to Berlin, an American ex-pat friend living there, upon discovering our choice of hotel, implored us not to stay in the West; as if such an action would strike a harsh blow to the bohemian solidarity that has been so carefully cultivated in the East. Needless to say, we stayed in the West, hung out in the East, and completed the trip with our, um, cred fully intact.
But such is the continuing cultural struggle in post-Soviet Eastern Europe. Certainly, the combination of ironic distance and post-monarchist-era class reparations has made it perfectly acceptable to remake ostentatious old aristocratic palaces into hip hotels throughout Western Europe. But opening groovy hotels in former Soviet territory would seem to require a particular sort of sensitivity, wouldn’t it?
Again, it’s that continuing tug-of-war between perceived bohemia and those coveted comforts of modern luxury, between the remnants of the great Marxist ideal and the ominous march of capitalism. And nothing says "creeping Westernism" quite like a hip new boutique hotel, does it? Which is precisely why the recent openings of hip, boutique hotels in Prague, Tallin and Zagreb (yes, Zagreb) carry a particular resonance.
Now, the Czech Republic is technically part of Central Europe, but for obvious reasons, it is spiritually linked with the East. And, despite more than a dozen years of scruffy American art-types descending on the beautifully gloomy city of Prague, as well as a booming tourist trade, a prevailing discomfort with American-style cowboy capitalism still hangs heavy in the Czech air. But with spend-crazy Hollywood having discovered the joys of filming on the cheap here, all those stars and the people who kiss their fannies were naturally going to need somewhere chic to bunk down.
Chic Boutiques in Prague
Prague's first entry into the mod hotel world was the shiny new Hotel Josef, whose design is a remarkably bold disregard for the city's morosely grand old character. This hotel, in fact, seemed somewhat doomed at first, its opening coming as Prague was still mopping up from last August's nigh biblical floods. That it’s been a smashing success may attest to a softening of the city's general discomfort with squeaky modernism. Indeed, Eva Jiricna's design for Hotel Josef is practically a religious homage to Adolph Loos' "ornament is crime" philosophy, a sea of white offset only by careful touches of color and aluminum and chrome details, anchored by a spectacular spiral staircase. Racy impropriety is achieved by way of the stone-clad bathrooms, which are enclosed only by transparent glass walls--which means the place is probably crawling with exhibitionists. Lenin would be horrified.
Elsewhere in Prague, celeb architect-designer Adam Tihany (he who has given us the Time Hotel in New York and Hotel Aleph in Rome) took a more reverent approach to his design of the new Carlo IV Hotel. Re-imagining a spectacular 19th-century bank building, he left the almost preposterously grandiose, distinctly pre-Bolshevik neo-Renaissance details intact. The lobby's gold vaulted ceiling is so marvelously ostentatious, in fact, that you can almost picture Soviet officials ordering it to be blown up, as a gesture to the proletariat. In keeping with the realities of a post-Neo-Renaissance world, however, modern luxe rooms and a hip watering hole, the Inn Ox Bar, are essential features of the Carlo IV.
Stylish Warsaw Boltholes
Few cities during the 20th Century endured more misery than Warsaw, decisively annihilated by Hitler, then handed mercilessly over to Stalin. So, its enduring citizens could be forgiven for having bigger things to worry about these past fourteen years than their rank on the international trendiness charts. But it may not be so much ironic distance as the simple need to compete in the zippy new global economy that finds the city’s first boutique hotel opening its doors. Hotel Rialto, though, is actually quite light on cheeky irreverence and hipsterism; instead, the concept was to authentically recreate a 1920’s Art Deco hotel, perhaps hoping to conjure the feeling of a pre-1939 Warsaw, before the city was plunged into the horrors of war and occupation. And designers DOM Architektury Warsaw, by use of genuine Deco pieces and, where necessary, Deco replicas, have done a brilliant job of evoking the Warsaw of a happier time.
Eastern Allure: Estonia and Zagreb
Estonia was no picnic under Soviet rule, but capital city Tallinn seems ready to become the new Krakow even before Krakow fully had a chance to complete its run as the new Florence. (Got that?) Here, a trio of 14th Century houses, known as the Three Sisters, have been renovated and opened as an eponymous hotel. It’s sort of a bizarre melding of the Middle Ages and mod chic; the buildings themselves are truly marvelous clichés of medieval architecture, but the interiors have been fashioned to distinctly media cognoscenti taste, all pale woods, austere furniture and well-chosen contemporary art. And it’s near to the old city’s raging club scene, which is amongst the hottest in Europe at the moment (no, really).
As for Zagreb, even several years later, it’s still hard to write with hipster detachment about a city whose citizens were ducking Serbian rockets as a daily activity. But the new Arcotel Allegra is really more of a business hotel with a slick design scheme. A futuristic block of Bauhaus-influenced architecture, it’s got bright, modern interiors, a few clever touches in the rooms (you can choose your own lighting scheme), a wellness center (if there’s one thing Zagreb needs, it’s wellness), and a contemporary Mediterranean restaurant.
New hotels do have an optimism about them that has a way of helping to usher a city out of its darker moments. And though these former Soviet cities may soon be staring down the new enemy, in the form of rampant, schlocky capitalism, for the time being, a designer bed and a couple of mad cocktails seem like reasonable strides towards a brighter, groovier future.
Heading East? See our stunning selection of boutique hotels in Eastern Europe.