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The Klotild Palace has stood sentinel at the foot of Elizabeth Bridge since 1902, one half of a matching pair of Neo-Baroque towers built for Archduchess Klotild of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, commissioned entirely without irony purely to look magnificent to travellers crossing into Pest. The building survived two wars, decades of decline, and a spell as an antiques bazaar before St. Regis restored its UNESCO-listed bones in April 2026: Zsolnay ceramics, Miksa Róth stained glass, and Hungary's first-ever lift shaft. The hotel now runs to 102 rooms and suites, a spa built into the old apartments, and the requisite Champagne sabring in the Atrium. Butler service throughout, courtesy of Marriott's House of Astor: American ownership, certainly, but the palace itself has never belonged to anyone but Budapest.
Go deeper...
We Love Budapest — Miksa Róth's glass and the archduke's crown
From Hungary With Love — Pest thought the twins were a mistake
PestBuda — The southern twin goes first