Hotel Ritz Madrid to close for renovation

Hotel Ritz Madrid, the 108-year-old property that was one of the original European hotels opened under famed hotelier Cesar Ritz, will close Feb. 28 for a $121 million renovation, and will reopen late next year.

Owner Mandarin Oriental will upgrade the 153-room Belle Epoque-era hotel by restoring the its crystal chandeliers, sculptures and antique paintings, and will bring back the glass roof over its main lounge.

The hotel will also add a 2,000-square-foot Royal Suite that will have views of the Prado museum, while the property's primary restaurant will be moved back to its original location next to the hotel's terrace garden.

Mandarin Oriental, which along with the Olayan Group acquired the hotel in 2015 for $148 million, will retrain staff at many of its other properties in preparation for the hotel's reopening.

Located within Madrid's "Golden Triangle of Art" near the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art, the Hotel Ritz Madrid opened in 1910, five years after the Hotel Ritz Paris. King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia, granddaughter of the U.K.'s Queen Victoria, were in attendance.

Regular guests at the hotel, which was Spain's first steel-framed building, included Prince Rainier of Monaco and Princess Grace, who honeymooned there.