Hotel Le Plaza, Brussels
Le Plaza | |
---|---|
Lobby | |
General information | |
Location | Brussels |
Address | Boulevard Adolphe Max 118-126 |
Coordinates | 50°51′16″N 4°21′23″E / 50.85444°N 4.35639°ECoordinates: 50°51′16″N 4°21′23″E / 50.85444°N 4.35639°E |
Opening | 1930 then 1996 |
Closed | 1976 |
Owner | Baron van Gysel de Meise |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 7 |
Design and construction | |
Architect | Michel Polak |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 190 |
Number of suites | 14 |
Number of restaurants | l'Estérel |
Parking | 1 |
Website | |
www |
The Hotel Le Plaza is one of the last independent hotels in Brussels, and also one of the most ancient. It was built in the early 1930s in a Louis XVI style, in the heart of Brussels.
Architecture
Michel Polak, to whom the architecture was entrusted, found inspiration in the style of the Hôtel George-V in Paris, ensuring by its concrete ossature a remarkable solidity. The frontage was covered with French stones. The interior was designed to reflect the ideas of brightness and splendour: high ceilings, large corridors, big light rooms, several naturally lighted bathrooms, a majestic stairways covering 8 floors, decorated with stained glass windows and fringed with wrought iron hand-rails...
History
Under the reign of King Leopold II, Brussels was remodelled with large boulevards and green avenues. Mayor Jules Anspach (1829–1879) contributed to the transformation of the urban landscape of the capital by the realization of the thoroughfare from the North station to the South station.
The Hotel Le Plaza was built and opened its doors in 1930. Very soon, prestigious guests came to the Hotel le Plaza, which became one of the symbols of the Brussels luxury hotel trade. In 1940, during the occupation, the hotel was placed under the authority of the German troops just as the great hotels of that time. The military commander for Belgium and the North of France took his quarters there. Premeditating its destruction, the Hotel Le Plaza was, exactly like the Palace of Justice, made into a booby-trap by the Germans, before the arrival of the Allied Forces. When it exploded, it killed two British Army officers: Captain George Hayton (age 32) and Major Anthony Wright (age 30) and destroyed the hotel's winter garden and sumptuous stained glass dome. Hopefully the rest of the hotel was not damaged. Shortly after the liberation, the British general staff occupied in its turn the prestigious palace: Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Luns, who was secretary general of the NATO from 1971 to 1984, stayed there regularly.
The Hotel Le Plaza was obliged, like many of its contemporaries, to close in 1976.
Famous guests
Other important personalities of politics and finance were regular guests of the Hotel Le Plaza. But the hotel was most appreciated by the world of the arts and show business: Charles Aznavour, Jean Marais, Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguett, Louis Jouvet, Michèle Morgan, Gérard Philippe, Annie Cordy, Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, Luis Mariano, Gary Cooper, Raymond Devos, Georges Guétary, Josephine Baker, Fernandel, Lucienne Boyer, Charles Trenet, Martine Carol, Bourvil, Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Claude Pascal, Claudine Dupuis.
The song Indépendance Cha Cha was played for the first time in the hotel during the negotiations about Congolese independence from Belgium in 1960.
Nowadays
Twenty years passed before the rebirth of the Hotel le Plaza under the impulse of its present owner, Baron van Gysel de Meise. With a view to give the building its original vocation back, while equipping it with the very latest applications of modern technique, the « Société de Gestion Hôtelière » undertook from February 1995 considerable renovation and fitting works for an investment of 400 million Belgian francs. [1]
By respect for the tradition, the restoration works were placed under the direction of decorator Pierre-Yves Rochon – who was in particular in charge of the decoration of the Hotel George-V in Paris, and of Anne van Gysel, in order to recreate in the most faithful way the atmosphere of the past, combining the warmth of a tapestry from the « Manufactures Nationales » of Gobelins, the glossy shine of a rare marble and the diffused light created by chandeliers in amethyst cristal.
Rooms
The Plaza offers 190 rooms and suites on 7 floors: 109 classic rooms, 53 Deluxe rooms, 20 Prestige rooms, 4 Executive Suites, 1 Plaza Suite and one presidential suite, which is one of the biggest in Benelux. The rooms are amongst the largest of the City with a minimal size of 35 sqm. The suites, with high ceilings, are situated along large and spacious corridors.
The theatre
The Theatre of the Hotel Le Plaza is a former cinema with a surface of 460 square metres (5,000 sq ft), classified as a historical monument by Royal Decree. It was built in 1930, in a unique Spanish – Arab – Moorish style. Under the name of "Acropole Cinema", it opened in 1928 and had an interior designed in a Spanish style with many false windows and barley sugar columns. Seating was provided in stalls and balcony. At one time (possibly in the 1930s) it ran cine-variety shows.
The entrance to the cinema was located at the left-hand side of the twin-blocked building and originally had a large vertical 'PLAZA' sign over the entrance. There was a Plaza Taverne located on the corner of Adolphe Maxlann & Rue de Malines, now the main entrance to hotel. The rear of the building backs onto the former Varieties Theater (Cinerama) around the corner on the narrow Rue de Malines.
The decision was taken during the renovation to keep the original boxes, the genuine bracket-lamps, the stage as well as the richly sculpted wall ornaments of Andalusian inspiration. It is nowadays used as a banquet hall and conference facility.
The restaurant l'Estérel
The restaurant features the particularity of combining a Bar and a Restaurant for 48 guests. The decoration of the restaurant is very luxurious like the hotel. The particularity of this decoration is the painted ceiling of the restaurant, picturing a mainly blue sky. The menu, created by our chef Olivier Bontemps and his sous-chef Alexandre Van Kalck, varies with the seasons to guarantee fresh quality ingredients.
Movies filmed at the Hotel
- 2010 : Hotel Swooni, directed by Kaat Beels
- 2010 : fr:Moi, Michel G., milliardaire, maître du monde, with fr:François-Xavier Demaison, fr:Laurent Lafitte, directed by Stéphane Kazandjian
- 2012 : Ushi must Marry, directed by Raul Ruven
- 2012 : fr:Möbius (film), directed by Éric Rochant, with Jean Dujardin and Cécile de France
Photo gallery
- In the early 30
- The lobby
- The main front
- The Theatre
- the jardin d'hiver
- Nowadays
- The reception
- The restaurant
External links
References
- ↑ owner interview
- fr:Hotel Le Plaza Bruxelles for the French version
- Cinema Pleasures website
- "L'institut dentaire George Eastman Bruxelles et quelques autres réalisations de l'architecte Michel Polak" Edition d'art et de publicité "Mundus" s.a. 204, rue Royale (1000 Bruxelles).
- http://www.britishlegion.be/pdf/Fact_sheet_no_2.pdf
- Interview of Baron Van Gysel de Meise