The magic of hospitality lies in staying in a spot that’s nothing like home. A castle, a treehouse, a farm, a yurt: all of those places promise an escape from on a regular basis life, especially when combined with luxurious flourishes that dazzle the mind. I still wonder how ice cream appeared within the Gobi Desert at Three Camels Lodge in Mongolia or how blueberries got here to be served for breakfast at Explora Lodge on Easter Island. Or as within the case of the Four Seasons in Madrid, a hotel combined seven historic buildings into one sensational art destination.
Numerous luxury properties offer art collections that include dozens of pieces, but there is no such thing as a comparison to this Four Seasons Hotel Madrid, even in comparison with other Four Seasons destinations, which regularly showcase their owners’ private collections. More than 1,500 unique artistic endeavors fill every hallway and room at this Four Seasons, perhaps the world record for a single luxury hotel. It’s value simply spending a day wandering across the property and having fun with the range of the gathering, and the concierge team is blissful to rearrange detailed tours for guests.
Of course, such an enormous collection wasn’t put together overnight. The entire hotel gallery was taken care of by experts for 4 years Paloma Fernandez Iriondo, a veteran Sotheby’s auctioneer who headed the Old Master Paintings Department in Spain early in her profession. Fernández-Iriondo desired to honor the historical And Highlight what’s recent in the gathering and it’s sure to hit the mark. For the period pieces, Fernández-Iriondo drew inspiration from the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, two of Madrid’s legendary art institutions, conveniently positioned across the road from the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid. Inspired by the classic use of botanical arrangements, Paloma created greater than 300 reproductions from ten artworks in guest rooms and suites.
For the brand new art, Paloma held a contest that received greater than 500 proposals from Spanish artists, starting from sculptures to light installations. She narrowed the quantity of submissions right down to 75 works and chosen a wealth of impressive pieces, including one from Borja Torrent, an artist who uses vibrant drips of primary colours, and Maria Elisa Rivera Armada, one other creative with complex strokes in her moody paintings of which is shown in a set as a beige diptych entitled “The Wall”. My favorite piece was the ash wood sculpture that appears like an enormous rubber band and was present in the hotel’s principal restaurant, Dani. The piece, by Jose Chafer and called “Curved Series 1”, challenges the mind as to how wood may be bent so elegantly. I also liked Sandra Val’s peep-peek garden fresco painting on the ceiling of the ISA restaurant. The delicate branches and flying birds contrast beautifully with the deep red and velvet décor of the restaurant.
The art alone makes this Four Seasons a destination, nevertheless it is spa can also be a must. Bathed in heavenly light, the doorway with a swirling staircase sets the tone for the transcendent space. As I walked up the steps to the gym, I smiled at how decadent the realm was. So often the “gym” is an unattractive, mandatory addition to a spa, but not on the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid. After lifting weights, I ducked into the pool area, which incorporates a nearly 50-foot-long pool under generous skylights. The pool areas are often somewhere within the basement or blocked off from any natural light, but that does not apply to this hotel either. I enjoyed the varied “wellness tapas” offered to enhance spa treatments, including the two-and-a-half-hour “Pamper” option, a full-body treatment that features a scrub, massage and anti-pollutant facial.
It’s not only hotel guests and locals from Madrid who enjoy this remarkable spa each day. “Visiting Practitioners”, health and wellness gurus corresponding to the well-known and licensed reflexologist Claudio J. De Menezes Kobido facialist Josep Lupion, Book different weeks on the spa all year long when their special services are offered exclusively on the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid. Such a wise concept could actually be adopted more widely in other luxury spas, as gurus like Lupion and Menezes have their very own followings and add novel offerings for normal guests.
If I lived in Madrid, I could be an everyday on the Four Seasons. In a way, it might be a house you may’t consider exists. Visiting the art, the spa and the wonder of how such an unlimited collection of buildings merged into one spectacular property is actually a destination so different from home.