Hotel PURS – a 1677 chancellery turned Vervoordt gesamtkunstwerk in Andernach

Hotel PURS stands behind the stone walls of the Alte Kanzlei, a council and chancellery house raised in Andernach's old town in 1677 for the Archbishop of Kurköln, and used for centuries as the region's seat of administration before a careful restoration turned it into an eleven-room boutique address. Every surface, from the courtyard to the smallest suite, carries the signature of Belgian designer and antiquarian Axel Vervoordt, who built the whole house as a single work around the Japanese wabi-sabi idea of restrained, imperfect beauty. The MICHELIN Guide gives Hotel PURS Two Keys, and in the evening, guests cross to the one-star dining room PURS Nordic Japanese, where chef Peter Fridén sets a six-course menu that reads like a map of his own life: born in South Korea, raised in Sweden, trained in French technique. It is a small house that behaves like one of the most considered addresses on the Rhine.

01The house

The building's bones go back to 1677, when the Archbishop of Kurköln had the Alte Kanzlei built as a house for councilmen and court clerks; for generations afterwards it served as a seat of regional government before falling into mixed use. A respectful 2018 restoration stripped the structure back to its historic fabric and reshaped it into a hotel of only eleven rooms and suites, with a new wing added alongside the old to complete the ensemble. A courtyard now stitches the two periods of the building together, carrying the old chancellery's stone through into contemporary interiors.

Every inch of that interior was designed by Axel Vervoordt, the Belgian antiquarian known for bringing Japanese wabi-sabi thinking into European interiors elsewhere for clients from Robert De Niro to Sting; in Andernach he treated the whole hotel as a single composition of natural materials, muted tones and curated art rather than a conventional fit-out. Hotel PURS is a member of Relais & Châteaux, and the MICHELIN Guide places it among its Two Key properties, citing an atmosphere the inspectors describe as traditional elegance and quiet.

02Rooms and suites

There are eleven rooms across the old and new chancellery buildings, each handled individually rather than to a repeated template, with parquet or tiled floors, air conditioning and fast Wi-Fi throughout. Rooms set in the three-hundred-year-old main building carry the most charm, according to the MICHELIN Guide's own assessment of the house, their proportions and details shaped by the original 1677 structure rather than built to a modern footprint.

Insider tip

Eleven rooms, a one-MICHELIN-star restaurant and a wabi-sabi interior by Axel Vervoordt.

The range runs from the 27 m² Classic Double Room in the Old Chancellery to the 67 m² Signature Suite Old Chancellery, the hotel's largest and most elaborate room in both architecture and fittings; a Signature Suite in the New Chancellery and several Premier Suites sit between the two. A short walk away, the Convent villa offers a further, more private form of accommodation for guests wanting an entire house to themselves.

03Where to eat

The hotel's own restaurant, PURS Nordic Japanese, holds a MICHELIN Star in the current guide for its fusion of Asian-Japanese, Scandinavian and French technique. Chef Peter Fridén, born in South Korea and raised in a small town in Sweden, trained in French cuisine and built his career at Heinz Winkler's kitchen in Aschau, as sous chef to Niklas Ekstedt in Stockholm, as junior sous chef at the three-MICHELIN-starred Waterside Inn in the UK, and as head chef of Soho House Berlin before arriving in Andernach.

His six-course tasting menu, also available in a shorter form and with a vegetarian version, is built around dishes such as ikejime golden trout with whey, kohlrabi and yuzu, and a dashi chawanmushi finished with smoked Oscietra caviar and a Mangalitza bacon broth. Diners sit within sight of the open kitchen through a glass sliding door, with the wine list running past 1,000 labels alongside a curated selection of sake. The dining room keeps short, deliberate hours, open Wednesday to Saturday from 18:30, closed Sunday to Tuesday.

04The bar

PURS Bar carries the same wabi-sabi restraint into a daytime-to-night setting, built around finely balanced cocktails, a focused sake list and bar food meant to be taken seriously rather than as an afterthought. Dishes include a Scandinavian salmon toast with Löjrom caviar, sashimi of sea bream in yuzu vinaigrette and a Wagyu burger with kimchi mayonnaise, served alongside fine spirits and wine by the glass. The bar runs daily from 11:30 to 22:00, with hot food available from midday until 21:00, making it the hotel's most flexible room for anything between an aperitif and a late, informal dinner.

05The neighbourhood

Hotel PURS sits inside the walled old town of Andernach, one of Germany's oldest towns, on the Rhine's left bank roughly thirteen miles from Koblenz. Within a few minutes' walk stand the Runder Turm, a 56-metre defensive tower built between 1440 and 1453 whose three-metre-thick walls survived a French demolition attempt in 1689, and the Rheintor, a double gate from around 1200 still watched over by its Tuffstein guardian figures. Andernach's other claim to fame lies just outside town: the world's highest cold-water geyser, a CO2-driven column of water that erupts roughly every two hours, reachable by a short boat trip from the Rhine promenade.

Within the hotel's own grounds, the Historical Garden layers excavated Roman columns and fountains among vegetable beds and rows of medicinal herbs, all of it free for guests to pick as they walk through.

06Making the most of a stay

Because the house holds only eleven rooms, a table at PURS Nordic Japanese is worth securing when booking the stay rather than after arrival, particularly given its MICHELIN Star and the restaurant's modest covers. The hotel runs a calendar of culinary events through the year, from evenings with winegrowers and producers to seasonal menus around Christmas and New Year, all organised around its small-scale, personal style of hospitality.

Andernach lies within easy reach of two of Germany's best-known wine regions, the Mosel and the Ahr, and the hotel can arrange cycling or golf outings at nearby clubs for guests wanting to extend the day beyond the old town's walls. The hotel closes for a company holiday each January, so it is worth checking the calendar before planning a winter visit.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.