Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts is to open its first hotel in Hungary this month after the $110m restoration of the 100-year-old Gresham Palace.

The 179-room luxury hotel, situated on the banks of the Danube, is said to be one of the world’s finest art noveau buildings and will boast two restaurants, a bar and lounge, spa and fitness centre and meeting space.

The spa will include a 39ft infinity-edge lap pool as well as massage and treatment rooms, a sauna, whirlpool, steamrooms and exercise room.

In the dining room, guests will be able to choose from cuisine ranging from light Italian meals to new interpretations of traditional Hungarian dishes.

Wolfgang Hengst, president of worldwide hotel operations at Four Seasons, said: “Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest is a significant addition to our growing portfolio of distinctive European properties. Guests at the hotel will experience the art and culture of Budapest from a luxurious home base with the best location in the city.”

The property was originally built in 1906 as the headquarters of the Gresham Life Assurance Company but was later a home for aristocracy before falling into disrepair following the Second World War and Communist era, but came back to life in the late 1990s when Four Seasons agreed to convert it into a luxury hotel.

It now joins Four Season’s European collection, which boasts nine other properties.

Four Seasons manages 62 hotels throughout 29 countries, opening its first resort in Costa Rica and its first European resort, at Terre Blanche, Provence, earlier this year.

This summer the company will open its second mountain resort in Whistler, Canada – the venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics – and later in the year hotels will open in Langkawi, Malaysia and Hampshire in England. Details: www.fourseasons.com