Rosewood's first property in Austria — 99 rooms inside a 19th-century palace on Petersplatz, opened in 2022 and already among the most polished modern luxury hotels in central Europe.
"No two rooms are alike. The rooftop has a view of St Peter's baroque dome from the bathtub. Rosewood opened in 2022 and immediately joined the city's top three for service. The most sophisticated boutique address in Vienna."
Rosewood Vienna opened on 1 September 2022, inside a 19th-century palace on Petersplatz — the small baroque square immediately behind Graben that holds the high-baroque St Peter's Church (Vienna's second-most decorated church after St Stephen's, and a working concert venue). The conversion was undertaken by the New York interior architect Alexander Waterworth, with the brief of producing a Vienna hotel that did not look like a Vienna hotel — neither imperial-velvet pastiche nor design-hotel modernism, but something closer to a private contemporary residence in the Habsburg quarter. The result is the most distinctive interior of any new five-star to open in central Vienna in the last decade.
There are 99 rooms and suites, deliberately limited in inventory to allow each to be designed individually — no two are identical. Walls are upholstered or hand-papered; ceilings retain original stuccowork in the period rooms; the contemporary additions (oak floors, brass and walnut fittings, custom art commissioned for individual rooms) are calibrated to feel residential rather than hotel-like. The St Stephen's Suite is the corner accommodation with the cathedral view; the St Peter's Wellness Suite, on the upper floor, includes a private sauna, steam bath and an open-plan layout that converts the suite into a private spa. The bathrooms throughout are deep marble, with soaking tubs in nearly every category and floor-to-ceiling windows in the higher categories.
The Asaya Spa, on the lower floor, is the city's quietest serious spa — a six-treatment-room facility with hammam, sauna, steam, a 12-metre lap pool, and the most fully developed Asian bodywork programme in central Vienna. Treatments run on Asaya's own protocols (the Rosewood-developed wellness brand) and the suite-level rooms are unusually large by city-spa standards. The hotel's restaurant, Neue Hoheit Brasserie on the ground floor, is run by chef Stephan Glanzer with a Viennese-modern menu and a tasting-menu programme. The rooftop bar, with views over the church domes of the Innere Stadt, is one of the few in central Vienna with both the elevation and the protected listed-building exposure to take in St Peter's, St Michael's and St Stephen's at the same sight-line.
The position behind Graben is the address's quiet superpower. Petersplatz is one of the most pedestrianised squares in central Vienna; the hotel's entrance does not face a major thoroughfare; the building is two minutes' walk from St Stephen's Cathedral, three from the Hofburg, and inside the Innere Stadt's most refined retail spine on Tuchlauben and Kohlmarkt. For couples and solo travellers who want central-Vienna access without the commercial clamour of the Sacher's State Opera frontage or the Imperial's Ringstrasse exposure, Rosewood is the address. It is the most fully realised modern five-star opened in the city this decade.
For a Vienna honeymoon that does not want to be staged inside the imperial-velvet idiom, Rosewood is the modern alternative. A St Peter's Wellness Suite with the private sauna, an Asaya couples' treatment, dinner at Neue Hoheit, and a quiet drink on the rooftop with the church domes lit at sunset — the week designs itself. Rosewood's honeymoon recognition runs at the brand's Asia-Pacific standard (a curated welcome amenity, suite upgrade, in-room flowers and pâtisserie) and the property is small enough for the management to actually know which guests are celebrating.
A Rosewood anniversary in Vienna is the considered modern option — the same staging budget as the Sacher or the Imperial, but applied to a contemporary residential interior with a serious spa attached. The St Stephen's Suite for the night itself, dinner at Neue Hoheit, and a private rooftop drink with the cathedral floodlit produce a celebration that registers as deliberate rather than borrowed.
For a city-based wellness break, Rosewood Vienna is the strongest urban-spa choice in central Europe. The Asaya Spa runs full programmes (hammam, lap pool, six treatment suites, the Asaya bodywork range) in the geographic centre of Vienna, allowing a guest to combine spa days with the city's serious cultural calendar — the State Opera, the Musikverein, the Albertina. The St Peter's Wellness Suite, with its private sauna and steam, allows the wellness programme to extend into the room itself.
Petersplatz 7
1010 Vienna
Austria
Stephansplatz U-Bahn 4 minutes' walk; St Stephen's Cathedral 2 minutes; Vienna Airport 25 minutes by taxi
99 rooms & suites
Premier Rooms from €650/night
Suites from €1,500/night
St Peter's Wellness Suite from €4,500/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Opened: September 2022; Rosewood's first Austrian property
Asaya Spa with 12m lap pool
Neue Hoheit Brasserie
Rooftop bar with church-dome views
Hammam, sauna, steam
St Peter's Wellness Suite (private sauna)
Pet-friendly
From €650/night. The 99-room inventory is limited and the St Peter's Wellness Suite books months ahead; book three to four months out for spring, summer and Christmas markets.
Book This Hotel →Opposite the State Opera since 1876, family-owned for five generations. The Sachertorte address.
Tony Chi's restoration of a 1915 bank — bank vault as the spa pool, and the city's most accomplished modern luxury.
The Habsburgs' state guesthouse since 1873. Café Imperial, Imperial Torte and the city's most ceremonial address.