Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo

Light falls through a dome of glass and wrought iron onto a circular lobby, the Jardin d'Hiver, and most visitors look up before they look for reception. The dome is attributed to the workshops of Gustave Eiffel, and it is the reason the Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo is photographed more than any other interior in Monaco. The hotel stands on Square Beaumarchais, a terrace above the harbour and a hundred metres from the Casino, and has belonged to the Société des Bains de Mer since it was built.

History

The Société des Bains de Mer, the company that has run Monaco's casino and grand hotels since 1863, commissioned the Hermitage in the 1890s to add a quieter house to its Hôtel de Paris next to the Casino. The architect Jean Marquet designed a Belle Époque building on the cliff edge, finished in 1896, with the winter-garden dome as its centrepiece. The Salle Belle Époque, the dining room, was decorated with ceiling and wall paintings by Gabriel Ferrier, the academic painter who had won the Prix de Rome, and it is used for the hotel's grandest dinners.

The hotel grew through the twentieth century with wings added along the square and towards the sea, and the SBM renovated it in stages in the 2000s and 2010s while keeping the original rooms. In 2020 the group brought Yannick Alléno to the hotel for its gastronomic restaurant, which replaced the long-running Vistamar.

Architecture and design

The exterior is pale stone with balustraded terraces, round-arched windows and a corner rotunda facing the harbour, in the same Belle Époque register as the Hôtel de Paris and the Opéra by Charles Garnier across the square. The Jardin d'Hiver inside is the set piece: a circular hall under the dome, ringed by a balcony with iron railings and a double staircase, with palms and a mosaic floor. The Salle Belle Époque, with its Ferrier frescoes, gilded columns and sea-facing terrace, is a listed-quality interior in a principality that has demolished most of its contemporaries.

Rooms and suites

The rooms and suites spread over the original building and the later wings, with the best facing the harbour, the Rock of Monaco and the sea; the quieter ones look onto Square Beaumarchais. The top suites have terraces over the port. The hotel does not publish a single room count in our source material.

Dining

Pavyllon Monte-Carlo, Yannick Alléno's restaurant at the hotel, serves at a counter and tables facing the sea and holds a Michelin star. The Salle Belle Époque opens for breakfast and for dinners under the Ferrier ceiling. The Crystal Bar, off the Jardin d'Hiver, has a terrace above the harbour and takes its name from the crystal chandeliers of the room.

Wellness

A private corridor links the hotel directly to the Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo, the SBM's seawater spa of about 6,600 square metres on the cliff below, with a heated seawater pool, a hammam, treatment rooms and a solarium. Guests of the Hermitage have access as part of their stay. The hotel also has a fitness room.

Weddings and events

The Salle Belle Époque with its terrace is the main room for weddings and galas, and the Salle Eiffel under the dome serves cocktails and receptions. A further series of salons takes meetings, and the SBM can extend an event into its other venues, the Salle des Étoiles of the Sporting and the Casino's salons. Capacities per room are not in our source material.

Location

Square Beaumarchais sits between the Casino square and the harbour of Port Hercule, with the Casino, the Opéra and the Hôtel de Paris two minutes on foot and the Grand Prix circuit passing below the terraces. Nice-Côte d'Azur airport is 30 kilometres away, about 40 minutes by car or seven by helicopter, and Monaco-Monte-Carlo station is a ten-minute walk. Among luxury hotels in Monaco it is the one with the finest Belle Époque interiors.