Hotel de Rome

Bebelplatz is the square where the Nazis burned books in May 1933; the State Opera stands on one side, the Catholic cathedral of St Hedwig behind, and the Humboldt University's law faculty opposite. On the south-east corner, Hotel de Rome occupies a sandstone palace built in 1889 as the Berlin head office of the Dresdner Bank, and it is one of the few buildings on the square that came through the war largely intact.

History

The Dresdner Bank commissioned the building from the architect Ludwig Heim and used it as its headquarters until 1945. After the war it sat in East Berlin, serving the GDR's state bank and later other state institutions, and the façade acquired a coat of grime but kept its ornament. After reunification the building was returned to the Dresdner Bank, which sold it. Sir Rocco Forte took a long lease and converted it over several years, opening the Hotel de Rome in October 2006 as his group's first German house. The name recalls the nineteenth-century Hôtel de Rome that stood on Unter den Linden nearby and was lost in the war.

Architecture and design

Heim's building is Wilhelmine neo-Renaissance in rusticated stone, with a tall base, arched windows and a corner tower looking down Unter den Linden. The conversion by the Berlin office of Aukett + Heese kept the main staircase, the panelled directors' rooms on the first floor and the double-height banking hall. Interiors are by Olga Polizzi with Tommaso Ziffer, in a palette of dark wood, bronze and strong colour against the pale original stone, with contemporary art throughout.

Rooms and suites

There are 145 rooms and suites, high-ceilinged, several of them in the former managers' offices with original mouldings and parquet. The best suites are on the corner above Bebelplatz; the Bebel Suite and the Historic Suites keep bank-era woodwork. Bathrooms are in marble with separate showers, and the top floor has rooms with terraces.

Dining

Chiaro, the restaurant on the ground floor, cooks Italian with German seasonal produce under the Rocco Forte food director Fulvio Pierangelini; it succeeded La Banca in the same room. The Bebel Bar off the lobby is the hotel's social centre, and the rooftop terrace, open in warm months, is one of the few places in Mitte to drink with a view of the Opera, the cathedral and the television tower.

Wellness

The spa is in the basement where the bank kept its vault. The 20-metre pool lies within the former jewel vault, under a vaulted ceiling, and the treatment rooms, sauna and steam room occupy the surrounding strongrooms. A fitness room completes the floor.

Weddings and events

The Opera Court, the former banking hall with its glass roof and columns, is the hotel's ballroom, taking dinners of a couple of hundred and receptions of more. The first-floor boardrooms with their original panelling serve smaller dinners and meetings, and the rooftop terrace is used for summer receptions. The hotel hosts weddings with ceremonies in the salons and the party in the Opera Court, and is one of the principal addresses for the Berlinale, Berlin Fashion Week and the opera season.

Location

The hotel is on the corner of Bebelplatz and Behrenstrasse, one block south of Unter den Linden, with the Brandenburg Gate ten minutes' walk west and Museum Island the same distance east. Gendarmenmarkt is three streets away. Berlin Hauptbahnhof is fifteen minutes by taxi, the Berlin Brandenburg airport about forty minutes by car or by the FEX airport train to Hauptbahnhof. As a luxury hotel in Berlin it is the one closest to the State Opera and the historic centre.