The Mandarin Oriental, Vienna, is located in a restored courthouse in the city’s historic centre.JACK HARDY/Supplied
It’s impossible for Vienna’s history to not dominate your first impression of the Austrian capital. Grand palaces including the Belvedere museum (where visitors queue to pucker up next to Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss), and the Gartenpalais Liechtenstein (which opens for an annual exhibition of its art and decorative treasures every winter), tower over its broad boulevards. And discrete boutiques like A.E. Köchert (a destination for fine baubles since 1814) or Knize (a green carpeted haberdashery designed by early modernist Adolf Loos) line its market squares.
As you wander, however, the city’s enthusiasm for the new emerges from this reverence for its legacy. At two-century-old glassware destination J. & L. Lobmeyr, its mouth-blown pieces include contemporary collaborations with Italian-British designer Martino Gamper, and surrealist New York lifestyle brand Gohar World. At three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Amador, Viennese staples such as Tafelspitz stewed beef and chocolate-apricot Sachertorte are reimagined as delicious, single-bite curiosities.
The hotel has 138 rooms and suites, and is near the MAK Museum of Applied Arts.JACK HARDY/Supplied
This sort of reinvention is also front and centre at the Mandarin Oriental, Vienna, which opened in December in a pristinely restored first district courthouse. The 1906 landmark’s neutral interiors, including a covered courtyard restaurant/coffee house/cocktail bar and subterranean spa, channel the posh decor of luxury properties around the world. But, as your stay extends, its unique Vienna-ness is increasingly apparent. After a stroll to the nearby MAK Museum of Applied Arts, your eye is primed to spot the Wiener Werkstätte inspiration behind the geometric textiles and printed wallpapers in the hotel’s 138 rooms and suites. Those Art Nouveau spaces are the backdrop for an expansive cache of work focused on contemporary Austrian women artists.
These types of juxtapositions formed the foundation of the Vienna Secession, the early 20th century movement that abandoned traditional, siloed views of art and craft in pursuit of modernization. Come check out time, they also ensure you appreciate the hotel as a space that exists handsomely between Vienna’s past and its future.
Stays from $700/night through mandarinoriental.com.
The Globe and Mail Style Magazine travelled as a guest of the Vienna Tourist Board and Mandarin Oriental, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.