“The construction of Europe is an art,” former French president Jacques Chirac once said. “The art of the possible.” And indeed, each country has diffused its own brand of possibility across the continent. With a design strategy based on the mantra “every place has a story,” The Ritz-Carlton has absorbed and distilled those European sensibilities and channeled its distinct glamour into Vienna, Geneva and Berlin.

ART AND ECLECTICISM

Art was the starting point for designing The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna. It was constructed from four 19th-century palaces built in the golden age of Viennese Ringstrasse architecture, which liberally mixed Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic styles.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in The Ritz-Carlton Albertina Suite, located in the former Palais Ötzelt. During his lifetime, Anton Ötzelt, the owner, builder and architect of the palace, became a keen art collector and used the building to house his extensive collection. Today, thanks to a curatorial collaboration with the city’s Albertina Museum, the rooms of this suite once again become a private art gallery of sorts. Canvas-colored interiors underline the brilliance of five paintings spanning Impressionism and Postimpressionism — expressive works by masters including Cézanne, Degas and Monet — while interlocking patterns repeat across smoked-oak parquet floors and oil-burnished walnut walls, adding dimension. 

Good light and natural surroundings elevate good design, so it’s fitting that The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna borders the beautiful Vienna City Park and boasts Musikverein concert hall and Vienna State Opera as close neighbors. The Ritz-Carlton Symphony Suite overlooks Beethoven Park, while also affording guests exclusive access to the Wiener Symphoniker Orchestra's Grand Rehearsal.

ART AND HARMONY

At the historic The Ritz-Carlton Hotel de la Paix, Geneva, the art of harmony comes into focus. You’ll find it amid the Italianate lobby’s marble colonnades and gilded leaf, where two pieces celebrate the city’s clockwork history: Stemming the chandelier, "La Cascade des Engrenages" suggests a timepiece whose gears are suspended like haloed orbits, ever in the process of coming together. While in the installation "Le Panneau du Temps," six pairs of white-capped clock hands resembling magician wands glow and spin, a meditation on the continuous trick of time.

You’ll also find harmony inside the sophisticated Grace Kelly Suite — named after one of the hotel’s most esteemed guests — which is backdropped in soft taupes and art deco accents, and features photos from the actress-turned-princess of Monaco’s remarkable life. Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock once described the starlet’s beauty as at once cold and sensual, and one needn’t look past the Grace Kelly Suite’s living area to see that duality translated: With its original cornicing, high ceilings and large bay windows looking out onto Lake Geneva (a view that Kelly herself adored), its stately symmetrical bones are balanced with curvy modern furnishings.

ART AND REMEMBRANCE

The glitz of another time takes center stage at The Ritz-Carlton, Berlin, where East met West at Potsdamer Platz, once Europe’s busiest hub and epicenter of the Roaring Twenties. Inspired by the decadent glamour of the era, which was the Golden Age of German film, the lobby, whose fanned walls and brassy geometric art deco accents imbue a sophisticated air, is anchored by a sprawling curved marble staircase and overseen by a cluster of burstlike chandeliers reminiscent of paparazzi camera flashes. And just aside the grand entrance, a more intimate area, nestled around a bold kelly green hearth, calls for a well-crafted drink. You’ll find other thoughtful nods to movie history: The minibar, reminiscent of a piece of luggage, brings German singer and silent-film actress Marlene Dietrich’s song “I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin” to life.

The pinnacle of this homage rests at The Ritz-Carlton Suite, whose warm gold tones reflect the sunny side of this vibrant city, and whose geometric patterns and intersecting lines symbolize the historical importance of Potsdamer Platz. But the inspiration here is not all nostalgia — state-of-the-art amenities help marry the city’s past with its technologically advanced present. Nature abounds here too; the hotel overlooks the lush Tiergarten, the large urban park that’s popular with locals and visitors alike.