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Historical Tour of the Hotel Bristol
The history
The Hotel Bristol opened in 1892 - at a building on the other side of the block. But the hotel soon extended "to grow into" today's corner. Between 1916 and 1945, the Hotel Bristol was so large that it stretched the entire front of Kärntner Ring 1-7. During that time the hotel still boasted the Grill Room, a Titanic-style dining room. Neither the room nor the ship exists any longer. With its prominent address Kärntner Ring 1 today, the Hotel Bristol is the hotel next to the Vienna State Opera, with 140 rooms and suites.
What happened here
From a socio-demographic point of view, the Bristol's guest list includes a highly interesting mix of famous figures only to be found at a hotel of world class. In 1894, Russian composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein opened the guest book. But among the some 500 entries in the first guest book you also find illustrious names such as US President Theodore Roosevelt, crowned heads like the Spanish and English King, opera stars like Nellie Melba or Enrico Caruso, composers like Mascagni or George Gershwin, the major representatives of the European higher nobility and well-known personalities from the worlds of industry, art and politics. At the Bristol, the writer Felix Salten negotiated the contract that made his novel Bambi a world bestseller - and finally a Walt Disney movie. The list is endless and right now, while we talk about this, some new celebrities make their entries in the book.
The name - The Logo
The hotel was named after the British town Bristol. In Vienna it was disproved for the first time that the Bristol had been named after the fourth Earl of Bristol. The Earl lived some 100 years before the opening of Europe's Bristol Hotels (Rome 1870, Warsaw 1901, Oslo 1920, Paris 1925 and some 50 more), his emblem was totally different from that of the town in Suffolk which has nothing to do with the Earl.
Bristol's emblem depicts a castle and a ship. Bristol, after all, was the town from where many expeditions put out to sea. The original unicorns were displaced by lions in 1923. Later, in 1932 and 1975, the unicorns appeared again. Today, the emblem bears the lions once again. The motto Virtute et Industria, virtue and industriousness, can be read above our hotel's entrance door; it is, in fact, the same motto that decorates the emblem of the town Bristol in England.
The Korso
"Korso" (Korso is the Italian word for procession or street) has always been the term for an elegant boulevard where handsome soldiers promenaded with their fiancées between the Sirk Corner and the Hotel Imperial. For 20 years the Restaurant Korso at the Hotel Bristol has been one of the top gourmet addresses in town. In 2004, star architect Paolo Piva enriched the Korso by a transparent illuminated onyx element. The Estrade and the new outdoor restaurant boast beige leather interior and elegant design.
The Sirk Corner
Around the turn of the century the Sirk Corner became a popular meeting point. There, German tradesman August Sirk offered most exquisite travel accessories at his leather ware store. In 1918/19, writer Karl Kraus penned the five acts of his epochal work The Last Days of Mankind at the Sirk Corner. Today, guests enjoy the terrific view of the Vienna State Opera over breakfast, lunch or dinner from the Restaurant Sirk.
Read more about the history of the Five Star Hotel: