Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels, Protected heritage hotel in Freedom Quarter, Belgium

The Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria is a palace hotel in central Brussels, housed in a building designed in Belgian Beaux-Arts style with a Louis XVI facade. It is a protected heritage site that has been under renovation and is in the process of reopening.

Built in 1909 to plans by Henri Van Dievoet, a nephew of architect Joseph Poelaert, the hotel replaced the earlier Hotel Mengelle and opened in 1910 for the Brussels International Exposition. It was listed as a protected monument on 21 September 2000. It closed as a Sofitel in 2007, was bought by Corinthia Hotels in 2016, and reopened on 9 December 2024.

The hotel's public spaces carry the names of its new chapter: the Palais Royal gourmet restaurant by David Martin, the brasserie Le Petit bon bon by Christophe Hardiquest, the bar Under the stairs by mixologist Hannah Van Ongevalle, and the Coutume concept store of Belgian luxury brands. The guestbook records a century of famous visitors, from Churchill and Eisenhower to Dalí and James Joyce.

The hotel sits in central Brussels and is easy to reach on foot from the main train stations and city landmarks. Since the reopening is happening in phases, it is worth checking in advance which parts of the building are open before you visit.

The two-storey-high glass roof, 15 metres long, vanished after 1947 because of watertightness problems. It was rebuilt from period photographs and again carries its original coloured, painted stained glass. The hotel reopened on 9 December 2024; its restaurants opened then, with the rooms following in April 2025.