Villa Pétrusse – thirty years asleep, a city palace reborn

In Luxembourg City's Ville Haute, where the Pétrusse River curves beneath the Adolphe Bridge, a nineteenth-century hôtel particulier has reopened after decades of silence. For almost thirty years the house sat empty, its salons shuttered and its gardens overgrown, before a five-year restoration gave it a second life. Villa Pétrusse rose in 1880, commissioned from textile merchant Henri-Eugène de Kerkhove, with architecture by Pierre Kemp and gardens laid out by the French landscape designer Édouard André; contemporaries called it a miniature château. It reopened in summer 2025 as a 22-room hotel spread across the original villa and a reimagined stable pavilion, and is now the country's second Relais & Châteaux address. The MICHELIN Guide awards it Two MICHELIN Keys, and its restaurant, Le Lys, carries a MICHELIN star under chef Kim de Dood, who returned home after years cooking in starred kitchens across Europe and Asia. Nothing here feels built from scratch; it feels like a house that has finally been let back in.

01The house

The villa's later history is as telling as its first owner. Generations knew it as Villa Baldauff, the family who held the house until 2010; having stood empty for the better part of thirty years, it was classified a national monument in 2018. Worn stone staircases and hidden passages survive alongside the new rooms, and the building itself perches on the former Jost bastion, a fragment of the city's fortress walls. Kemp's design had already been honoured once, winning a gold medal at the 1881 Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Bringing the house back took five years, led by interior designer Tristan Auer working alongside architects Jim Clemes Associates and Jean Schmit Engineering. The project ran to three distinct interventions: restoring the listed structure, repairing a building damaged by fungal decay, and inserting an entirely new volume behind the historic façade. The hardest part was fitting five-star essentials — ventilation, cooling, en-suite bathrooms — behind wooden beam ceilings protected by heritage law, work that earned the restoration a place among the EUmies Awards 2026 heritage entries.

02Rooms and suites

The 22 rooms, suites and penthouse spread across the main villa and the neighbouring Pavillon — once the estate's stables — connected by an inner courtyard where a fountain plays beneath centuries-old trees. Each headboard carries a reproduction of a work by the Luxembourg painter Sosthène Weis, a motif Auer repeats as hand-painted wallpaper elsewhere in the house. Bathrooms and dressing rooms mix bronze, marquetry, leather, marble and ceramics, down to black Bakelite light switches. Categories run from Superior and Deluxe rooms to valley-facing Signature rooms, the Mélusina and Pétrusse suites, and the Gëlle Fra Suite, a penthouse tucked beneath the eaves; its two suites and the penthouse come with a dedicated butler.

Insider tip

Overlooks the Pétrusse River and Adolphe Bridge, a short walk from Luxembourg's UNESCO-listed Old Town.

03Where to eat

Le Lys, the gastronomic restaurant, holds a MICHELIN star. Chef Kim de Dood built his reputation in Michelin-starred kitchens across Europe and Asia before returning to his native Luxembourg, and his cooking sets traditional Luxembourg flavours against subtle Asian influences. Dinner begins with an aperitif in one of the villa's historic salons, then moves into a choice of dining rooms, among them the Renaissance-style Marie-Thérèse salon, its walls lined with large mirrors and frescoes. The restaurant is closed Sundays and Mondays, serving dinner the rest of the week.

Ciel Brasserie occupies a glass conservatory suspended above the gardens, open daily for lunch and dinner, with a weekend Kaffi & Kuch in the afternoon and a Martini Hour before dinner on weekdays. Kim de Dood's menu here turns bistronomic, revisiting Luxembourgish dishes from his childhood alongside seasonal, Asian-inflected plates.

04The bar

The ground floor keeps three distinct moods: the Salon Bourbon, a lounge bar draped in black, red and gold; the Edouard André salon, styled after a winter garden and given over to afternoon tea with views of the park; and a wine cellar set into the fortress's historic casemates beneath the house.

05Spa and wellbeing

Wellbeing here has little to do with a conventional spa circuit. A newly opened wellbeing suite combines fitness and massage treatments, built around the private park's century-old trees and the quiet of the valley below rather than pools or saunas. Treatments pair the Austrian house Susanne Kaufmann's Alpine formulas with bespoke rituals by Abigaïl Bianconi, and run Monday to Friday from 11am to 8pm and weekends from 9am to 5.30pm.

06The neighbourhood

The address sits in Ville Haute, overlooking the Pétrusse River and the Adolphe Bridge, with the UNESCO-listed Old Town a short walk away. The Hamilius tram stop is four minutes on foot, Place de Metz six, putting the Grand Ducal Palace and Place d'Armes within easy reach without a car.

07Making the most of a stay

As the country's second Relais & Châteaux property, Villa Pétrusse lends itself to privatisation: salons, courtyard and gardens can be booked whole for weddings, executive committees or family gatherings. Check-in runs from 3pm, check-out by noon, leaving a full day either side to use the park and its century-old trees before or after the drive to Findel airport.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.