DERAG LIVINGHOTEL DE MEDICI
CULTURE AND SPLENDOR OF DÜSSELDORF’S FINEST ACCOMMODATIONS
Most of us have visited a museum. But how many have spent the night in one? The Derag Livinghotel De Medici in Düsseldorf, Germany, is a town hall, a monaster y, a palace hotel, a journey through time, an homage to the great art treasures of Europe.
Most of us have visited a museum. But how many have spent the night in one? It’s possible at the Derag Livinghotel De Medici in Düsseldorf, Germany. It is a town hall, a monastery, a palace hotel, a journey through time, an homage to the great art treasures of Europe. During her era, Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667-1743) brought culture and splendor to Düsseldorf and the region, and the hotel honors that by being named after her. Since 2010, the 17th-century building has been extensively restored, and celebrated its grand opening in March 2015.
Opening as the second house in Düsseldorf of the Derag Livinghotel chain— with currently 15 hotels in Germany and Austria—the Derag Livinghotel De Medici is situated in the middle of Düsseldorf’s well-known Altstadt. It is by the sensational Andreas Quartier, near the established Deutsche Oper, the Königsallee and the beautiful Rhine embankment promenade.
DE MEDICI EXPERIENCES A MODERN RENAISSANCE
The hotel is in a listed building that heavily influenced Düsseldorf’s past. The former town hall was a Jesuit order, the seat of royalty, and the municipal administration. The hotel’s central location is the perfect place from which to visit the city’s cultural highlights, and seasonal events such as the Christmas Market are in proximity. Business travelers appreciate quick access to the Messe Düsseldorf trade fair, the airport and the train station.
Artwork can be seen in the excavated alcoves and windowsills in the Prussian building tract and tapestries decorate ground-floor spaces. “We possess a unique mixture of art and illustrious history with contemporary style and design,” says
The hotel is in a listed building that heavily influenced Düsseldorf’s past. In the courtyard, for instance, the centrally positioned water feature makes a first allusion to the Renaissance.
Bertold Reul, the hotel’s general manager.
The hotel holds an extensive repository of original and replica art objects extending in range from the late Middle Ages to the modern period. In the courtyard, for instance, the centrally positioned water feature makes a first allusion to the Renaissance. It was in 15th-century Italy that fountains were rediscovered as a design element, for example in the park of the Villa Medici at Pratolino outside Florence, and more famously, at the Villa d’Este near Rome.
INDIVIDUALITY AND COMFORT IN A CENTRAL LOCATION
The hotel rooms and apartments impress with their individual interiors. They distinguish themselves from each other through details such as cross vaults, star-parquet flooring or different types of marble.
On the courtyard terrace that is connected to the Derag Livinghotel Brasserie Stadthaus, guests relax with a glass of wine and enjoy select dishes of French cuisine. The Brasserie Stadthaus itself stands out with its old wooden-coffered ceiling, providing comfortable charm.
Strolling toward Mühlenstrasse from the art galleries on Grabbeplatz, one’s eye is inevitably drawn to the neo-Baroque frontage of the former Regional and District Courthouse, a massive, monumental edifice dating from the Wilhelminian era. A refreshing contrast is offered by the slender, elongated volume of the former Town Hall building on the opposite side of the street. The impression is reinforced by the unassuming simplicity of its classical façade, designed by Prussian architect, city planner and painter Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
This complex of buildings, which originally housed a Jesuit monastery and college before serving as an administrative center and the seat of government, is today the Derag Livinghotel De Medici. On one side it abuts the Baroque Andreaskirche, the burial place of Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm II (1658-1716).
The spatial proximity is symbolic of a connection from which Düsseldorf continues to benefit today: the much-loved elector of the Wittelsbach dynasty—known to the people simply and affectionately as “Jan Wellem”―who was married to Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici. It was at her instigation that a picture gallery of world class was instituted, and it is to her that Düsseldorf’s present-day fame as an art metropolis can be attributed.