By Klara Glowczewska, Town and Country
There are two versions of the luxury hotel creation myth: the perfectly formed structure that rises without precedent, compelling one to bow down before its immaculate, ahistorical highness (Aman resorts, I’m looking at you), or the place “with a past” (as was once said of intriguing women of a certain age). Striking instances of the latter are opening this summer all over Europe.
There are two versions of the luxury hotel creation myth: the perfectly formed structure that rises without precedent, compelling one to bow down before its immaculate, ahistorical highness (Aman resorts, I’m looking at you), or the place “with a past” (as was once said of intriguing women of a certain age). Striking instances of the latter are opening this summer all over Europe.
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| The Astir Palace in Athens. |
The Astir Palace, on its own island-like promontory in the fancy Athens suburb of Vouliagmeni, is reemerging as the first Four Seasons resort in Greece. Opened in 1958 by the Greek government to develop tourism after the devastation of World War II, the Astir had it all: the best “organized” beaches in Attica, two hotels, secluded bungalows amid aromatic pine trees, and a marina (this being megayacht territory). It attracted wealthy Greeks (Christina Onassis, for one, learned to water-ski here), but also heads of state, movie stars, artists, dancers, musicians. The marina is being enlarged, and there will be 13 new luxury villas and a sports park. You can take your family to Athens without being in Athens all day long; the Astir Palace is just 15 miles from the city. And the resort flaunts what no other in the world can: the ruins of a small, 6th-century temple to Apollo near one beach.
In Paris in 1910, the board of Le Bon Marché, the world’s first department store, built a hotel, the Lutetia (after Paris’s ancient Roman name), directly across the street from the store. Location, location, location: not on the Right Bank, where the city’s Belle Epoque “palace hotels” are, but on the Left, where those kings of commerce figured their wealthy suppliers and the crème de la crème of their customers would like a convenient retreat after their mercantile exertions. The fashionable Art Deco edifice was a hit. A who’s who of notables (among them Picasso, Matisse, Josephine Baker, Samuel Beckett, and James Joyce, who wrote part of Ulysses here) either resided at or frequented the Lutetia.
