Almanac Palais Vienna

The Hotel

The building was constructed 1869–1872 as the Vienna palais of Prince Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck — the Silesian magnate, one of Imperial Germany's wealthiest industrialists, and the second husband of the Marquise de Païva, Pauline Lachmann (whose Paris Hôtel de la Païva on the Champs-Élysées is the comparable architectural project). The Vienna palais sits at the corner of Akademiestrasse and Schubertring, on the inner-Ring side of the Stadtpark, with primary frontage onto Schubertring. The palace passed through Habsburg-era and 20th-century institutional ownership before the building was acquired and restored over 2018–22 by Spanish-led hospitality group Almanac Hotels (Almanac Barcelona opened 2017; Almanac Prague opened 2020). Almanac Palais Vienna opened on 14 April 2023 — the brand's third hotel and the only Almanac in a former imperial-era palace.

The 152 rooms (including 30 suites) are arranged across the heritage envelope plus a courtyard contemporary insertion. The historic-envelope categories preserve the original 1869 plasterwork ceilings, the parquet, and — in the Schubertring-facing units — the full-height Ringstrasse-side windows. Standard rooms run 28–35 square metres; Deluxe Rooms 35–45 sqm; Junior Suites 50–70 sqm; the named suites (the Donnersmarck Suite, the Påiva Suite, the Schubert Suite, the Penthouse) range from 90 to 240 square metres. The Penthouse on the top floor includes a 60-square-metre private terrace facing the Stadtpark and the State Opera. Interior design is by Madrid-based Lázaro Rosa-Violán Studio: warm-tone modern (oak, ochre, deep green, cordovan leather) calibrated against the heritage envelope rather than competing with it.

Henri — the hotel's all-day restaurant, named for Henri Lepic, a 19th-century Vienna friend of the Donnersmarcks — operates inside the palace's restored Wintergarten conservatory: a glass-roofed double-height room that was originally the family's reception room. The kitchen runs a contemporary Austrian-French menu under chef Andreas Wieser, with the Wintergarten's restored 1872 cast-iron framework as the room's defining feature. Habitat is the Schubertring rooftop bar and small-plate space (open seasonally May–October, with an interior winter version November–April); Library Bar handles the indoor evening programme; Lobby Lounge handles afternoon tea (the Mehlspeisen programme is the city's most considered after the Sacher's). Almanac Palais Spa runs to 800 square metres in the basement: 14-metre indoor pool, sauna, steam, fitness centre, four treatment rooms.

The market position is the newest grand-hotel address on the Ringstrasse. The Imperial, the Sacher, the Bristol, the Ritz-Carlton, the Hotel Grand Wien — the Ringstrasse five-star stack was a closed set for the better part of a generation; Almanac Palais Vienna is the first new entrant in over a decade. The Schubertring address — opposite the Stadtpark, three minutes from the State Opera, four minutes from the Karlsplatz Musikverein — is the city's strongest cultural-district position. The Lázaro Rosa-Violán interiors are the most considered contemporary intervention in a Vienna palace envelope. The rate-points are meaningfully below the Imperial or the Sacher headline categories. For travellers who want the Ringstrasse, the heritage envelope, and a contemporary luxury-boutique operating standard simultaneously, this is the answer.

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