Mandarin Oriental, Munich

Neuturmstrasse is a short street in the oldest part of Munich, between the Hofbräuhaus and the Maximilianstrasse, and at its corner stands a building of 1880 with a stone façade in the Italian Renaissance manner, built as a ballroom for the dances of the Bavarian capital. Mandarin Oriental, Munich has occupied it since 2000. The building had opened as a hotel in 1989 and the Hong Kong group took it over eleven years later, keeping a house of 73 keys at a time when most of its hotels were far larger.

History

The ballroom was built in 1880 and served for dances, concerts and civic occasions in the years before the First World War. It later housed offices and survived the bombing that destroyed much of the Altstadt in 1944. A Munich developer converted it into the Hotel Rafael, which opened in 1989 and quickly became the city's most private luxury address, with a reputation for hosting performers in town for the opera and the Oktoberfest. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group bought the hotel in 2000 and renamed it. The building is listed as an architectural monument in Bavaria.

Architecture and design

The façade is Neo-Renaissance, with a rusticated ground floor, arched windows and a cornice. The ballroom's proportions survive inside as the hotel's largest spaces: a staircase hall with a sweeping stair, a ballroom on the first floor and high-ceilinged salons. Rooms were renovated in the 2010s in a quiet contemporary style with pale wood, silk and references to Bavarian craft, and the public rooms were reworked around the same time. The roof terrace, with its pool, is the feature guests photograph: it looks across the roofs to the twin towers of the Frauenkirche and, on clear days, to the Alps.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 73 rooms and suites, about a third of them suites, which is a high proportion for a city hotel. Rooms on the upper floors have views of the old town; the suites on the top floors have terraces. The small number of keys is the reason the hotel is often taken over in full by film productions and private parties.

Dining

Matsuhisa Munich, on the ground floor, is the only restaurant in Germany by Nobu Matsuhisa and serves his Japanese and Peruvian menu. The Ory Bar, named after the hotel's address, is a cocktail bar with a reputation of its own in the city. The rooftop terrace serves lunch and drinks in summer by the pool, and the lounge on the ground floor takes breakfast and tea.

Wellness

The rooftop pool is heated and open in summer, with loungers around it. The fitness room is on the same level, and the hotel offers spa treatments in rooms rather than in a full spa.

Weddings and events

The first-floor ballroom, with its chandeliers and the proportions of the original 1880 room, holds weddings and dinners for a few dozen to about 100 guests; the salons alongside take meetings and private dinners. The roof terrace is used for cocktail receptions in summer. The hotel is a favourite for small weddings because the whole house can be taken for a party.

Location

The hotel stands in the Altstadt, one street from the Hofbräuhaus, three minutes from the Maximilianstrasse boutiques and five from the Marienplatz and the Residenz. The Nationaltheater, home of the Bavarian State Opera, is two minutes away. Marienplatz S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations serve the airport line, which reaches Munich Airport in about 40 minutes; the main station is 15 minutes by taxi. It is the luxury hotel in Munich that sits deepest inside the old town.