The Mezzanin

During the interwar period a ceiling was installed above the lobby on the mezzanine floor. That's how the Gobelinsaal, the Tapestry Hall, came to be. Until 1994 the lobby was relatively low and little attractive.

When in the course of a large-scale renovation the room was removed again, the stucco uncovered and the hall reconstructed according to old sketches, the Hotel Imperial was rated best hotel in the world by the readers of renowned Conde Nast Traveler magazine in 1995.

The mezzanine floor, by the way, was an architectonic feature of Vienna around 1900 to avoid building regulations. Thus, there were only few floors on the paper but the height of the building was increased by intermediate floors such as basement, raised ground and mezzanine floor. That's how people bypassed the (above all financial) constraints associated with additional floors.