Kempinski Palace Portorož

Portorož was Austria's answer to the Lido when the Palace Hotel opened its doors on 20 August 1910. The town sat on the empire's Adriatic coast, a railway linked it to Trieste, and the hotel was the largest and most expensive on the Istrian shore. The building that reopened in 2008 as Kempinski Palace Portorož is the same one, with its white facade and its Crystal Hall, after eighteen years of standing shut.

History

The Palace was built for the Portorož spa company at a time when the salt-pan mud and brine of the bay were sold as cures. Vienna's society came for the winter, Trieste's came for the summer, and the hotel's casino and ballroom were the social centre of the coast. Istria passed to Italy after 1918 and to Yugoslavia after 1945, and the Palace became a state hotel, well used but little maintained. It closed in 1990.

For most of the 1990s and 2000s the building stood empty on the seafront, protected as a monument but in poor condition. A Slovenian investor restored it, with the historic building kept and a new wing added behind, and Kempinski took over the management. The hotel reopened in 2008 as the first five-star hotel in Slovenia. The building is listed as a monument of local significance.

Architecture and design

The original hotel is a Secession-era palace, the Viennese variant of Art Nouveau, with a symmetrical white front, a central dome and a terrace onto the gardens and the bay. The Crystal Hall, the Kristalna dvorana, is its showpiece: a double-height ballroom with chandeliers, mirrors and stucco restored to the 1910 scheme. The new wing behind is plain and modern, holding most of the rooms, the spa and the conference rooms, and leaving the old facade uncluttered. A garden with a pool sits between the hotel and the road along the shore.

Rooms and suites

There are 164 rooms and suites. The historic suites in the old building have high ceilings, period proportions and the sea in front of them; the rooms in the new wing are contemporary, with balconies towards the bay or the hillside behind. Interiors use light woods and pale colours rather than historical pastiche.

Dining

Sophia is the fine-dining restaurant in the historic building, with a terrace on the garden side. Fleur de Sel is the all-day restaurant for breakfast and informal meals, with a menu of Istrian and Mediterranean produce. The Palace Bar occupies the ground floor of the old building. Istrian wine, olive oil and truffles from the hinterland shape the menus.

Wellness

The Rose Spa in the new wing has an indoor pool, saunas, a steam room, a fitness room and treatment rooms, with the salt and mud of the Sečovlje pans used in some treatments as they were a century ago. The outdoor pool in the garden is heated and open through the season, with the bay in view.

Weddings and events

The Crystal Hall is the wedding room of the Slovenian coast, used for ceremonies and dinners under the restored chandeliers. The new wing holds a set of conference rooms for congresses and meetings, and the garden is used for receptions in summer. Civil ceremonies can be held at the hotel, and the historic terrace serves for photographs.

Location

The hotel stands on Obala, the seafront road of Portorož, in the municipality of Piran on the Slovenian coast. Piran, the Venetian old town, is 3 km west along the shore. Trieste airport is about 50 minutes by road, Ljubljana airport about an hour and a half, and Venice Marco Polo around two and a half hours. There is no railway to Portorož; the nearest station is Koper, 20 km away. The town's casino, marina and promenade are all within walking distance, and the hotel is the only luxury hotel in Portorož with a 1910 pedigree.