View source for InterContinental Athenee Palace Bucharest

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox hotel
| hotel_name         = InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest
| image              = InterContinental Athenee Palace Bucharest.jpg
| map_type           = Romania
| caption            = InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest
| map_size           = 250px
| coordinates        = {{coord|44|26|27.6|N|26|05|44.9|E|display=inline,title}}
| opening_date       = 1912<br />1997 (International Brand)
| architect          = [[Duiliu Marcu]]<br />Théophile Bradeau
| operator           = [[InterContinental Hotels]]
| owner              = Ana Hotels SA
| number_of_rooms    = 283
| floors             = 7
| height             = 22.93m
| website            = {{URL|https://www.atheneepalace-hotel.ro/en/}}
| style              = [[Art Nouveau]] and [[Beaux Arts architecture|Beaux Arts]] (1914-1935)<br />[[Art Deco#Architecture|Art Deco]]
}}
The '''InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest''' is a historic luxury hotel in [[Bucharest]], [[Romania]], originally opened in 1914. It was arguably Europe's most notorious den of spies in the years leading up to [[World War II]], and only slightly less so during the [[Cold War]].<ref name="Halpern">Halpern.</ref>
==Location==
Located in the heart of Bucharest on Str. Episcopiei at the corner of [[Calea Victoriei]] on the former site of the Han Gherasi<ref>InYourPocket.com</ref> (''Han'' is [[Romanian language|Romanian]] for "inn"), the hotel faces onto the small park in front of the [[Romanian Athenaeum]] on [[Revolution Square, Bucharest|Revolution Square]]. It did not originally face onto a square: at the time the hotel was built, the space that is now a small park was occupied by the Splendid Hotel, destroyed by bombing on August 24, 1944, and there were a considerable number of other buildings on what is now the square.<ref name="Halpern; List of Names…">Halpern; "List of Names…".</ref>
==History==
===Early years===
[[File:Lobby Les Colonnades.jpg|thumb|Hotel lobby]]
The '''Athénée Palace''' was designed by the [[France|French]] architect [[Théophile Bradeau]]. It was built from 1912 to 1914, in the [[Art Nouveau]] style and was one of the last buildings built in this style. It was the first building in Bucharest to use [[reinforced concrete]] construction.<ref>Giurescu, p.166</ref> It was constructed on the site of the 19th century Gherasi Inn.<ref name="atheneepalace-hotel.ro">{{Cite web|url=https://www.atheneepalace-hotel.ro/en/|title=InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest &#124; Luxury Hotel Bucharest &#124; Athénée Palace History|website=www.atheneepalace-hotel.ro|accessdate=2 December 2023}}</ref> The hotel was completely modernized between 1935 and 1937, to designs by architect [[Duiliu Marcu]], with the exterior redesigned in the [[Art Deco]] style.
Describing the hotel as it looked in 1938, [[A. L. Easterman]] of London's ''[[Daily Express]]'' and later of the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]'' referred to its "heavily ornate furnishings, marble and gold pillars, great glittering chandeliers, and the deep settees placed well back in the recesses of the lounge as if inviting conspiracy."<ref name="Easterman, p.221">Easterman, p.221.</ref>
''[[The New York Times]]'' foreign correspondent [[C. L. Sulzberger]] wrote in his memoir ''A Long Row of Candles'' that as World War II was approaching, he settled into the Athénée Palace "to enjoy my wait for war… This was a comfortable establishment with excellent service…a corrupt staff always seeking to change a customer's money at black-market rates, and continual competition by ladies of easy or nonexistent virtue to share the warmth of a client's bed."<ref name="Cited in Halpern">Cited in Halpern.</ref> "Countess" [[R. G. Waldeck]] wrote of the hotel in the same era, "Here was the heart of Bucharest, topographically, artistically, intellectually, politically—and, if you like, morally."<ref name="Cited in Halpern" /> It was also home at the time to both [[United Kingdom|British]] spies and the [[Gestapo]].<ref name="Halpern" /> A. L. Easterman called it the "most notorious [[caravanserai]] in all Europe. …the meeting place of the Continental spies, political conspirators, adventurers, concession hunters, and financial manipulators. "<ref name="Easterman, p.221" /> Damaged by American air raids during [[World War II]], in April 1944, the hotel was completely remodeled in 1945.
===Communist era===
In 1948, the Athénée Palace was nationalized by the new [[Communist Romania|Communist government]], who famously bugged every room, tapped every phone (and every pay phone within {{convert|800|m|mi}}), and staffed the entire hotel with informers. Dan Halpern writes, "The hotel's general director was an undercover colonel in the [[Securitate]]'s Counterespionage Directorate; the hotel's deputy director was a colonel in the DIE, the Romanian external intelligence organization. The doormen did surveillance; the housekeeping staff photographed all documents in the guests' rooms. The prostitutes in the lobby and in the bar and in the nightclub reported directly to their employers; the free-speaking bons vivants and Romanian intellectuals hanging around the café, not to mention a number of the guests, had been planted."<ref name="Halpern" />
A new wing was built behind the original hotel in 1965. The project team, comprising architect Nicolae Pruncu and engineers Radu Mircea and Mihai Ionescu, encountered severe technical difficulties in binding the old building with the new one.<ref name="ipb">''Institut Proiect București'', pp. 68, and 82 (appendix)</ref> The hotel's interiors were remodeled in 1983.<ref name="atheneepalace-hotel.ro"/>
The government-run Athénée Palace was damaged in the [[Romanian Revolution of 1989]]. Some of the worst violence occurred in the square immediately in front of the hotel. The hotel closed in 1994.
===Restoration and modern era===
The Athénée Palace underwent a $42 million renovation from 1995 to 1997, financed by the [[European Bank for Reconstruction and Development]],<ref>[https://www.ebrd.com/documents/comms-and-bis/pdf-annual-report-1997-english.pdf Annual report 1997] ebrd.com</ref> and reopened in October 1997, managed by Hilton International, as the '''Athénée Palace Hilton Bucharest'''.<ref name="Halpern" /> In 2005, Romanian businessman [[George Copos]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.officerentinfo.ro/article/officemarket-news/athenee-palace-hilton-to-be-fully-renovated | title=Athenee Palace Hilton to be fully renovated }}</ref> through his Ana Hotels entity, purchased a controlling interest in the hotel's ownership company, Athénée Palace SA from the EBRD.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.anahotels.ro/en/about-us | title=About Ana Hotels &#124; Luxury Hotels in Romania }}</ref> In 2021, the hotel rooms in the 1965 "new wing" were fully renovated.<ref name="atheneepalace-hotel.ro"/> The hotel ceased to be operated by Hilton as of midnight December 31, 2022, and joined [[InterContinental Hotels]] as the '''InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest''' on January 1, 2023.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ihgplc.com/en/news-and-media/news-releases/2022/ihg-hotels-and-resorts-signs-intercontinental-athenee-palace-bucharest | title=IHG Hotels & Resorts signs InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest }}</ref>
==In media==
The hotel is a primary setting in [[Olivia Manning]]'s ''[[Fortunes of War (novel series)|Balkan Trilogy]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.romaniatourism.com/bucharest.html|title = BUCHAREST, Romania - Travel and Tourism Information}}</ref> which was later filmed as the 1987 [[BBC]] miniseries ''[[Fortunes of War (TV series)|Fortunes of War]]'', starring [[Kenneth Branagh]] and [[Emma Thompson]]. The miniseries was not shot at the hotel, but in [[Yugoslavia]].
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
* [[Alexander Easterman]], ''King Carol, Hitler, and Lupescu'', Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1942
*[[Constantin C. Giurescu]], ''Istoria Bucureștilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre'', Ed. Pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1966
* ''Institut Proiect București'', Arta Grafică, Bucharest, 1968
* Dan Halpern, [https://web.archive.org/web/20061215230953/http://www.gobtf.com/Btf/Lodgings/Info/AthArtcl.html The Walls Have Ears], ''[[Travel and Leisure]]'', June 2005
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070312035635/http://www.maerlant.be/cesiexhibit/context/list.htm List of Names and Places Explained: The Athenee Palace Hotel, the Splendid Hotel], in ''Bucharest Between the Wars: A Modernity With Fringes'', Romanian Academy Library, accessed 4 January 2006.
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*{{official website}}
*[https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental/hotels/us/en/bucharest/buhap/hoteldetail InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest IHG chain website]
{{InterContinental Hotels Group}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athenee Palace Bucharest}}
[[Category:Art Deco architecture in Romania]]
[[Category:Art Deco hotels]]
[[Category:Art Nouveau hotels]]<!-- This was the style of the hotel between 1914 and 1935 -->
[[Category:Calea Victoriei]]
[[Category:Historic monuments in Bucharest]]
[[Category:Hotel buildings completed in 1914]]
[[Category:Hotels established in 1914]]
[[Category:Hotels established in 1997]]
[[Category:Hotels in Bucharest]]
[[Category:InterContinental hotels]]