Central Europe
4 Hotels
Central Europe spent the 20th century being pulled apart and put back together by forces it didn't choose. The hotels on this list absorbed all of it. Communist occupations, Freemason lodges, wartime headquarters, royal spa culture. They came out the other side still standing. Budapest alone could fill an entire site. The Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary has hosted Goethe, Beethoven, Peter the Great, and James Bond. Central Europe is the most underrated region on this list. These hotels are why.
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Budapest, Hungary
Mystery Hotel Budapest
Built in 1896 as the headquarters of the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Hungarian Freemasons — at its peak, over 11,000 members. In 1920 the government banned Freemasonry and seized the building. The Great Hall and marble floors are still intact.
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Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
Grand Hotel Pupp
Dating to 1701. Goethe came. Chopin came. Beethoven came. Peter the Great came and drank the mineral waters with great enthusiasm. Casino Royale used it as the Montenegro casino — the production team needed a building that looked like old European money.
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Warsaw, Poland
Hotel Bristol Warsaw
Opened in 1901, co-financed by Ignacy Paderewski — the pianist who would later become Prime Minister of Poland. During WWII the Germans used it as their officers' headquarters. Paderewski's portrait still hangs in the lobby.
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Budapest, Hungary
Hotel Gellért
Opened in 1918 and immediately commandeered by the military. It has since been occupied by Romanian forces, the Red Army, and the communists. The Art Nouveau architecture and the 1934 thermal bath with its enormous glass roof survived all of them.