Photography via The Budapest Times
After decades of disuse, Budapest’s storied Dreschler Palace is being revived as a five-star hotel and will welcome its first guests next year.
The neo-gothic, French renaissance-style building dates from 1883 and was designed by Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos for the Hungarian State Railways Pension Insitute. It was a tenement building with a cafe, beer hall and skittle alley, and in later decades was used as dance studios for the National Institute of Ballet and Dreschler Hotel.
The Dreschler Palace has languished behind boards since the 1990s but will reopen as a W Hotel, operated by Marriott International, in 2022. According to The Budapest Times, work is already underway at the site, with an opening date still to be announced. Budapest group DVM is handling the renovation of the culturally protected 16,000 sq m palace.
The W Hotel Dreschler Palace will be the hospitality brand’s first outpost in Hungary. It will have 154 guest rooms and restaurants, a bar, and event facilities as part of its adaptive reuse and renovation. While the building underwent several changes of use and construction work due to a fire and damage during WWII, its interiors are largely intact, including two grand staircases, stained glass windows and period decoration in most of the rooms.
