Hotel Paris Prague

An Art Nouveau confection from 1904 that looks as though it was designed by a pastry chef harbouring serious architectural ambitions: the façade is lavishly decorated with mosaics, sculptures, and ornamental ironwork representing Czech Modernism at its most exuberant and least restrained. The hotel sits on the edge of Prague's Old Town, close enough to the crowds to be convenient and far enough to escape them, and the Café de Paris serves beneath painted ceilings that would make Alphons Mucha, Prague's own Art Nouveau master, nod in approval. 86 rooms, and a building that treats decoration not as an afterthought but as the entire point.