The rare privilege of a bona fide "Belle Époque" mansion...

Any architect called upon to design a "mansion" in the early 20th century could not do otherwise than incorporate a certain number of statutory features that would make the owner's fortune perfectly clear to all and sundry. Such features ranged from massive staircases, marble fireplaces, ceilings over 5 metres high, the size of the windows of the "noble" floors (first and sometimes second, failing a lift) and Hungarian stitch pattern oak floors, all of which were ostentatious signs of the owner's prosperity and influence. The mansion was, of course, only located in the most exclusive part of town and enjoyed the finest views.

The mansion of the Best Western Premier Park Hotel was built in 1903 and today offers its guests all the privileges of an exceptional Art de Vivre, stranger to the daily life of most people. Right from the moment you set foot in the hotel, the wide staircase and its wrought-iron balustrade or the period paintings immediately let you know that you have entered an outstanding property. Spending a few hours within its walls is a genuine pleasure, further enhanced by the knowledge that all the advantages of modern hotels are close to hand, among which matchless tranquillity, a stunning view and a practical location in the heart of Brussels' parks, business and administrative districts.

The guestrooms command lovely views of Cinquantenaire Park or of the hotel's garden, whose lush green vegetation is a riot of splendid hydrangeas and hundred-year-old trees. The garden is tastefully furnished in teak, perfect to relax and enjoy afternoon tea and biscuits in good company. The guestrooms, as spacious as they are airy, have lost nothing of the mansion's original aristocratic architectural features and boast moulded ceilings over 5 metres high, marble fireplaces, bow windows or balconies for some, solid wood furniture and period engravings. The two first-floor meeting rooms are authentic historic monuments, complete with stunning marble fireplaces, ornate coffered ceilings and crystal chandeliers.

The Best Western Premier Park Hotel is the sort of establishment that renders even the most discriminating guests contemplative, as if to better savour this extraordinarily refined and rare way of life. The sitting room-bar provides the ideal setting to forget time as you recline in its leather sofas and admire the decorative features characteristic of a period and a society that knew nothing of material worries: Victorian globe and library, marquetry inlaid furniture and rugs, precious crystal ornaments and 19th century sculpture and paintings.

The neighbourhood is perfectly suited to this stylish hotel. The Cinquantenaire Park, laid out just a few years before the Best Western Premier Park Hotel mansion was built, is home, around Arcades of the same name, to a refreshingly green setting and several of the capital's museums. At the time, the city's urban planners wanted to concentrate the nation's entire artistic, architectural and technical know-how in a single district. Among others, it is home to the Pavillon des Passions Humaines, built in 1899 to house the immense bas-relief sculpture by Jef Lambeaux that depicts the joys and tribulations of humanity. Three days after being inaugurated, the work, that very daringly for the era depicted a series of entwined bodies, gave rise to public outcry on the grounds of moral depravity. As a result, the pavilion was walled up and sealed by a metal door, in which state it remained for many years because the bourgeois owners of the neighbourhood mansions could not tolerate such "shamelessness". The classicism and moral rigour of the Palais, whose glass-roofed north hall, just opposite the hotel, is today home to the Aviation Museum, found far more favour in their eyes. Time has moved on and while the mansions such as that of the Best Western Premier Park Hotel may not have the same social significance they once enjoyed, they continue to offer guests an opportunity to sample an Art de Vivre, whose sophistication, while a token of the past, remains ever popular with today's discerning travellers.

Best Western Premier Park Hotel

21 Avenue De L'yser, Brussels, BE, Brussels, Belgium - B-1040

Phone: +32 (0) 2 735 74 00 Fax: +32 (0) 2 735 19 67