After years of standstill, the famous Astoria hotel on Rue Royale in Brussels' city centre will reopen in November 2024: the final works are currently being carried out on the interior of what should become Brussels' most luxurious five-star hotel.
The hotel has changed hands several times over the past decades but was bought by Maltese luxury hotel chain Corinthia Hotels in early 2016. At the end of the year, it will open its doors under the name Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels.
Brussels-based Francis Metzger, who specialises in restoring cultural heritage, was appointed as architect. The team at his architectural firm MA2 confirmed to Bruzz that the works will be finished in November – meaning that the extensive renovation and expansion of the hotel took nearly four years.
The complex will have 126 rooms and suites, a bar, a 1,200 m² spa (to which not only hotel guests will have access), a gastronomic restaurant, a brasserie and a private club. But Astoria's showpiece will be the Palm Court: a ballroom with an 11-metre-high glass dome that has been completely restored.
Credit: MA2 architecten
In 1909, Hotel Astoria was built at the request of King Leopold II to welcome visitors to the 1910 World Fair. The hotel became a city landmark which has welcomed many celebrities, monarchs and heads of state throughout the last century, from former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Dwight Eisenhower to Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalì.
Along with the Negresco in Nice, the Ritz in Paris and the Sacher in Vienna, it is one of the legendary witnesses to the early days of the luxury hotel world.
The building's façade, roof and parts of its interior were protected as heritage in 2000, but it has been vacant since 2007. At the time, the hotel was bought by Saudi Sheikh Mohammed Youssef El-Khereiji's hotel group, which never completed the planned renovation works.
Now, the new owner is committed to restoring the hotel "to its former glory" and to "re-injecting the soul into a Brussels legend," the website reads.
Simulation. Credit: MA2 architecten
Prices are not yet fixed, but the cheapest night's stay would be around €700 per night, rising to €21,000 for the most luxurious suites.
With this, the hotel aims to positions itself in a niche that has not yet developed in Belgium: the "charming palace" type hotels, which benefit from exceptional infrastructure and high-quality rooms.
In this way, the hotel chain aims to attract a new kind of clientele to Brussels – an audience which they claim is not yet served in Europe's capital.
