Heidelberg Suites

Germany’s urban centers are magnets for hospitality experiments, for cutting-edge art and design. Heidelberg, by contrast, is a trip back in time. This is the Oxford of Germany, if you like, and the university, the churches, and Heidelberg Castle are exemplars of a long-ago Germany that’s vanishingly hard to find in the more modern cities. And it’s against this historical backdrop, in this most traditional of cities, that the Heidelberg Suites must be understood.

The design, by the Italian architect Michele Bönan, looks perhaps a bit subtle for a modern-design luxury boutique, even a bit conservative, at least in photographs. But in contrast with the centuries-old architecture of the city it inhabits, this hotel offers a stunningly contemporary take on Heidelberg’s Romantic and Classical past, thanks in no small part to Bönan’s Florentine influence.

It’s a feast for the eyes, to be sure, but it’s not exactly hard on the other senses either. The suites (and yes, they’re all suites) are quite close to the apex of modern boutique luxury, with plush designer furnishings, kitchenettes with espresso makers, big indulgent bathrooms and all the usual electronic gear. There’s no restaurant, so as not to spoil the residential feeling of the place, though you’ll find any number of fine eateries in the old town, just across the river. What there is, incredibly, is a tiny gym, and a yoga and massage service — and just behind the hotel, on the hillside overlooking the river, the castle and the old town, is the famous “philosopher’s walk,” the walking trail where any number of poets, professors, and, yes, philosophers have taken their constitutionals.