Checking-In to: Rosewood Amsterdam

CHECKING-IN TO | CABANA TRAVEL | WORLD OF CABANA

Curiosity cabinets, vending machines filled with art, vases of sprouting tulips, and framed forgotten postcards accumulate across the former Palace of Justice on the Prinsengracht, where every object has a story to tell. Emma Becque and Isabel Bronts check-in for a tour of the Dutch city's most recent hotel opening, Rosewood Amsterdam.

BY EMMA BECQUE | CABANA TRAVEL | 5 MAY 2026

A collection of more than one thousand artworks runs through Rosewood Amsterdam, beginning with Molenschot’s metal city in the entrance. Each piece encountered in passing have been curated to tell the story of the building's historical past. © Isabel Bronts.

Set along the Prinsengracht, within Amsterdam’s UNESCO-listed canal belt, Rosewood Amsterdam occupies a 17th-century building whose earliest sections date to the 1660s. The initial building served as an orphanage designed by Daniël Stalpaert, and later, urban designer Jan de Greef remodelled the space into the city’s Palace of Justice. Following a decade-long restoration led by Kentie Architecten and Studio Piet Boon, it has reopened as the city’s first ultra-luxury hotel, while the building's character remains largely untouched.

From the canal, the facade still appears as institutional, deliberately left uncleaned in line with heritage regulations, its scale stretching across almost an entire block. Inside, that sense of authority persists. Corridors run long and slightly disorienting, wrapping around three internal courtyards, with rooms that still follow the logic of administration rather than hospitality. Instead of correcting this, the design leans into it. Guest arrivals are handled theatrically through a maze of interconnected artworks. As Mauricio Berber of Rosewood Amsterdam puts it, “it's similar to Rembrandt's The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum… you don’t immediately bump into the masterpiece or reception in this case, but, instead, you move through the building, which allows the space to reveal itself”.

That approach underpins what Rosewood calls a “sense of place”, here delivered with unusual clarity. The interiors by Studio Piet Boon draw heavily on Dutch visual culture without becoming thematic. Bedrooms feature pleated headboards that draw from the folds of judicial robes, while painted woodgrain doors pick up the tonal range of Still Life paintings hung in the local, coveted museums. Original stone floors and cornices have been retained, and the material palette remains deliberately simple to emphasise original 1600s features: timber, linen, plaster and stone, commissioned in a way that keeps the architecture the main focus.

“Everything has to be open, this is a very Dutch thing,” Berber says, referring to the lack of curtains in surrounding residential canal houses. “We adopted the same transparency.” It is an idea that extends beyond layout into the way the building is used. Art is not confined to walls; it is distributed throughout, often within reach. “We want visitors to touch and feel… everything is attainable, and everyone is welcome,” he adds, a pointed contrast to the usual untouchability of museum collections and five-star hotel chains.

At the hotel bar, Advocatuur, designed by Sagrada, Anton Corbijn’s portraits line the walls, while former prison cells at the far end of the building now host tastings of jenever, a traditional Dutch juniper spirit distilled on site. © Isabel Bronts.

The scale of the collection is considerable, with more than a thousand works by Dutch artists installed across the building. Some draw directly on historical references, including Re-Masters, a series reworking Dutch Golden Age paintings by figures such as Viviane Sassen and Maaike Schoorel. Others are more immediate.

In the entrance, a kinetic work by Lévi van Veluw, inspired by the deep blues of Dutch waterways, is set against original 17th-century columns, its slow movement acting, as Berber notes, “like a monumental watch”, marking the building’s transformation over time. Nearby, a light installation by Children of the Light runs the length of a corridor, illuminating the restored walls, where archaeologists were employed to find an exact colour match for the paint and damaged tiles, in keeping with the original palette. 

The smaller details are handled with the same care, with cabinets displaying ceramics reminiscent of those in the Netherlands' oldest art institute, Teylers Museum, while folded textiles and vintage books curate “a convivial ambience of home”. Along the corridors, framed postcards, written and forgotten decades ago, form an accidental archive. “Nobody writes anymore,” Berber says. “But if you read those postcards, it invites you to do the same.”

The former courtroom has been transformed into the Grand Library, a large, high-ceilinged space that retains its original proportions but now functions as a shared room rather than a place of judgement. Books are freely left and taken, with contributions from figures including Dan Brown and John Malkovich already in circulation. Berber is quick to point out that “lots has happened within these walls”, referencing trials such as the kidnapping of Freddy Heineken in the 1980s, although the hotel avoids dwelling too heavily on that past.

Where the building could easily have felt severe, the interiors manage to soften the monumental space. Furniture tends towards curved rather than angular forms, countering the weight of the original stone, and introducing what the Dutch describe as gezelligheid, a sense of comfort and cosiness. “Lots of arches and oval shapes,” Berber notes, “creating a cocoon effect” within what were once vast institutional spaces.

Of the 134 rooms, five are larger “houses” designed as apartment-scale suites. Each is handled differently, with some arranged around extensive book collections and others incorporating bespoke elements such as jewellery displays by Bibi van der Velden. The intention is clear: “these are spaces designed for staying rather than passing through”.

Downstairs, amenities such as Eeuwen, the main restaurant – named for the Dutch word for “centuries” – focus on seasonal local ingredients. Opposite, Advocatuur, the hidden bar, shifts the tone with striking lacquer-red interiors, faceted lighting, and a menu that draws on Indian influences. That thread runs through the project more broadly, extending into the spa, which sits below ground, part of a significant excavation carried out during the renovation.

Outside, the internal courtyards, designed by Piet Oudolf, encourage visitors to “look up,” with climbing foliage and winding florals that cascade over the building's scale. Berber notes that residents have started to drop in, “peeping inside” and moving through the gardens, a sign that the hotel is beginning to function as part of the city rather than apart from it.

The last new hotel permitted in Amsterdam’s historic centre, this vast Prinsengracht landmark extends its considered design from a ‘House’ suite (pictured above) to the canals, where a 1924 tea-and-mahogany saloon boat, designed to mirror the interiors, allows guests to sail through the city, Rosewood style. © Isabel Bronts.