Review

While every other hotel in Prague occupies an ancient house, palace or public building, not many inhabit the former ruins of a 14th-century monastery. The Mandarin Oriental thus offers something rather special, even by this city’s increasingly sky-high standards.

The monastery’s ancient features have inevitably been incorporated into the hotel design, most notably down in the spa where the remains of a Gothic church are laid out below a glass floor, and in the fitness centre, which houses a section of a medieval bridge.

But the modern is very much in evidence too. Juxtaposed with the vaulted ceilings, 172-square-metre ballroom and parquet floors is an uber-swanky bar, a sublime restaurant (Essensia; see Eat) and 99 rooms that are surprisingly understated but extremely refined.

Both the rooms and suites brim with subtle Eastern touches, sumptuous textiles and handcrafted finishes, and boast limestone bathrooms with heated floors as well as built-in LCD TVs. The presidential suite is to die for, and the spa is one of the city’s best (see Play).