Alvear Palace Hotel

Alvear Palace Hotel
The Alvear Palace Hotel is a luxury hotel in Avenida Alvear in Recoleta, an upscale neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It opened in 1932 and, after extensive refurbishment, reopened in 1994.
History
The hotel was built by Buenos Aires businessman and socialite Dr. Rafael de Miero, who had been to Paris in the early 1920s and wanted to bring some of that Belle Epoque grandeur to his then flourishing hometown.
He bought and demolished a large house on the corner of Avenida Alvear and Ayacucho in 1922, which began the decade-long on-again, off-again project, which finally opened in 1932. A success, it was expanded in 1940, consuming another old mansion on Avenida Alvear.
In 1970, ownership passed to the 26-year-old Andreas von Salm-Kyrburg Wernitz, Duke of Hornes, Spanish cousin of King Juan Carlos I, who presided over the hotel's slow decline as a result of labour disputes and a general Argentinian economic stagnation. With bankruptcy threatening, in 1978 Wernitz sold the hotel to the Aragon Hotel Group, and since 1984, it's been part of David Sutton Dabbah's Alvear Luxury Hotels.
It was renovated in 1984, and again in 2004.
Anecdotes
In 1948 Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta died in the hotel.
In 1962, actor Tony Curtis and his family (Janet Leigh, Kelly Curtis, Jamie Lee Curtis) stayed in room 606 during the filming of Taras Bulba.
In 1964, in room 805, actress Juliette Mayniel tried to commit suicide when she learned that her husband Vittorio Gassman was deceiving her. A hotel employee saved her just in time.
On May 4, 1992, the Swedish music group Roxette recorded the songs "Here Comes the Weekend" and "So Far Away" in room 603; the songs were included in their album Tourism.
Christina Onassis bought suite 334 only to speak on the phone during her frequent stays in Buenos Aires.
Horacio Ferrer Lived in the hotel for 38 years until his death in 2014.
In Media
The 1964 movie Il Gaucho was filmed largely in the hotel.
The 1995 movie The Things of Love, Part II by director Jaime Chávarri has scenes filmed in the hotel.
In 2009 the hotel was featured in the movie Walt & El Grupo, about when Walt Disney came to South America in 1942.
Notable guests
Ted Turner
Arthur Miller and Inge Morath
David Em
Jacques Chirac
Antonio Banderas
Sharon Stone
Melanie Griffith
Sean Connery
Gina Lollobrigida
Kenzo
Akihito and Michiko
Michael Schumacher
Al Pacino
Alain Delon
Marcello Mastroianni
Catherine Deneuve
Salma Hayek
Juan Carlos I of Spain and Queen Sofía of Spain
Alan Parker
Carolina Herrera
Beatrix of the Netherlands
Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Máxima of the Netherlands
Wim Wenders
Nelson Mandela
Sofia Loren
Helmut Kohl
Walt Disney
Rafael Alberti
Fidel Castro
Shaquille O'Neal
Francis Ford Coppola
Karl Lagerfeld
Claudia Schiffer
Rod Stewart
John Malkovich
Tom Cruise
Omar Sharif
Muhammad Ali
Margrethe II of Denmark
Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta
Orson Welles
Isabelle Huppert
Harald V of Norway and Queen Sonja of Norway
Vladimir Putin
Angela Merkel
Martti Ahtisaari
Mario Vargas Llosa
Charles, Prince of Wales
B.B. King
Alvin Toffler
Daniel Barenboim
Jane Fonda
Ayrton Senna
Roxette
References
External links
Alvaer Palace Hotel Site
Hotels in Buenos Aires
Hotel buildings completed in 1932