Brussels: Hôtel Métropole (Hotel)

Address: Place de brouckère 31, Ilôt sacré , Brussels 1000, Belgium
Show on map

Lonely Planet Review

Hôtel Métropole is the city's oldest hotel and a sumptuous, late-19th-century showpiece, with 305 uniquely configured and appointed rooms. A breathtaking French Renaissance-style foyer with marble walls and coffered ceiling leads to an imperial reception hall with beautiful etched stained-glass windows and priceless Belgian crystal chandeliers.

The hotel is owned by a family of brewers who in 1894 built the Parisian-style cafe with wicker chairs lining the pavement out the front as a means to promote their beer. They no longer own the cafe but you can still charge items to your room. They later expanded to establish the hotel, which now spans five integrated buildings with 7km (4mi) of hallways. Often used as a movie set, treasures include the rattling original steel cage elevator (the faint-of-heart can take a more high-tech if less thrilling version), which was built by the same contractor as the Eiffel Tower, and, at either end of what was once the ballroom, two dramatic figureheads above the fireplaces directly facing each other but separated by a faux wall. Rooms are decorated in Louis XVI original furnishings in the older sections; the Art Deco sections have original detailing.