What €85 million can do for a 185-year-old hotel
The Mandarin Oriental Savoy, Zurich is a curious reimagining of the iconic Baur en Ville — and now the city’s most intriguing new place to stay.
The older the historic hotel, the trickier the renovation. So goes the logic for hoteliers, who must carefully toe a line between super-subtle updates with deceptively high price tags and bolder changes that could anger devotees and preservation purists the world over.
That makes the Mandarin Oriental Savoy, Zurich — an 80 million Swiss franc (€85 million) reimagining of the 185-year-old Baur en Ville, the city’s first luxury hotel—an especially impressive undertaking.
Zurich has few hotels from international luxury brands. So locals have been eager to see what was happening behind the construction plywood at this centrally-located icon, set on the Paradeplatz between the city’s ritziest boutiques and major financial institutions. The afternoon I checked in, hours before Mandarin’s grand opening reception on 20 December, there were camera crews flooding the first floor, with passersby gawking through the automatic doors for a peek at the intimate lobby. If they’d come in, they’d have found a space that’s more modern than historic, but with enough preserved details—both in the bones of the building and the best-known venues inside it — to honour its legacy. Now, it’s simultaneously the city’s oldest and newest five-star stay.
The hotel was always an ambitious project. When hotelier Johannes Baur opened it in 1838, his intention was to deliver “the best and most elegant service” to “all gentlemen of every rank.” Guests would include Charles Dickens, German composer Richard Wagner, and later, Marlene Dietrich and Grace Kelly. And the hotel quickly took on historical importance: In 1859 it served as the backdrop for the Treaty of Zurich, which ended the Second Italian War of Independence between France, Austria, and Sardinia.
Fast-forward 185 years and Baur’s promise is being revived. The hotel’s original neoclassical facade has been beautifully updated with a subtle fan (the Mandarin Oriental trademark) affixed to the side of its crown and a slick sign across its front entrance. Its interiors, by Parisian designer Tristan Auer, come off as almost entirely brand new. The prevailing style is sophisticated, with nary a fussy reproduction or antique to be found; instead, nearly everything is bespoke, designed by Auer and crafted by Swiss artisans in a classical and timeless style. Curvy sofas and chairs in soft seafoam green and textured ecru bring a hint of millennial-inspired style, while lacquer-topped tables in all room categories have a clever swivelling base to easily double for work and dining.
The 80 guest rooms start at 800 Swiss francs per night, making them the most expensive in the city by a small margin. (At the Baur Au Lac, Mandarin’s main competitor, you’ll pay around 750 Swiss francs.) But the layouts are generous: My double deluxe room had a beautifully preserved panoramic bay window overlooking the Paradeplatz Square, a feature you’d normally expect in a suite. Those windows, along with heavy drapes and substantial woodwork, imbue the space with a sense of history.
The presidential suite is especially contemporary. It has a massive marble bathroom, muraled bedroom walls and an impressive wood-panelled walk-in closet—though throughout the suite, you’ll also find original French doors leading to a massive, wraparound terrace. It all reads as “inspired by,” rather than “beholden to,” the hotel’s past.
And yet, history buffs and other purists may wonder not only where all the building’s history has gone, but also how Mandarin Oriental managed to subvert it, given Switzerland’s strict preservation requirements. Its sister property, Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern, for instance, opened last year in another historic building, and its marbled columns and restored colonnade practically knock guests over the head with the accuracy of their meticulous restoration. (To illustrate just how draconian Swiss laws can be, the Luzern hotel is even restricted from concealing said columns with tall plants or other visual obstructions.)
The answers rest with previous owners. Annigna Caprez, the hotel’s director of communications, tells me over dinner at the Savoy Brasserie & Bar that the building had in fact already been altered quite significantly during the 1970s. “It was dilapidated, so the hotel was demolished and rebuilt, with the same historic facade and a new interior,” she explains while dining on poached sole a la grenobloise. During that rebuild, the interiors were reconfigured to create fewer, larger guest rooms—a blueprint that now benefits the Mandarin and its guests.
This also explains why several historic features date to 1975 rather than 1838, like a dramatic multistory chandelier that hangs down the centre of a circular staircase just off the lobby. One exception is at the top of those stairs. Among a cluster of modern boardrooms and elegant ballrooms, you’ll find the headquarters of Zurich’s Guild of Tanners and Shoemakers marked by an iron sign depicting a boot, where members have convened since 1920. (The society even negotiated an agreement that allowed them to meet there while the hotel was going through its two-year renovation.) During December’s opening event, a member of the guild showed off the room’s original stained-glass windows and wood panelling, along with the family crests of members dating as far back as the 1300s and a grand dinner table set with the society’s heritage silver.
Other spaces, for better or worse, feel entirely new, bearing little or no connection to their past. The rooftop terrace, called 1838, is an evolution of Belvédère, the Baur en Ville’s famous bar serviced by a then-state-of-the-art dumbwaiter. In a city with few rooftop bars, the small space will open to the public this spring, with spectacular 180-degree views but limited seating.
Orsini, the Italian restaurant headed by consulting chef Antonio Guida (of Mandarin Oriental Milan’s two-Michelin-starred Seta), retains its original name honouring Count Felice Orsini, a revolutionary who stayed at the Baur before his public execution by guillotine in 1858. Everything about the menu and the design feels faithfully Italian—from the homemade pasta to the Murano glass vases lining shelves along the walls. That’s a hit or a miss, depending on whether your heart is set on authentic Swiss cuisine.
Such is the overall impression of Mandarin Oriental’s newly reborn Savoy. It’s cosmopolitan and global if lacking in the deep-rooted history and culture that the Swiss show off so well. Whether its newness sets it apart from other beloved grand dames like the Baur au Lac or makes it inferior to them is purely a matter of personal taste. For most visitors to Zurich—itself an evolving city—the hotel succeeds as a modern and luxurious place to stay. And even if strict and serious preservationists are left wanting, there’s little doubt that the property is so stylishly and smartly reimagined that it will succeed at bringing this landmark—as well as Zurich’s hotel scene—into its next great era.
