How Europe’s Architectural Sanctuaries Are Redefining Wellness by Design
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Europe invented wellness resort culture, and in truth it’s never given up its trend-setting lead. Travelers have been coming here for rest and renewal since the thermal baths of Ancient Rome, straight through the grand Alpine hotel tradition of the 19th century. In modern day, demand hasn’t slowed down: wellness tourism on the continent is projected to grow 4.7% annually through 2035.
That history is why Europe is still dotted with places where wellness is tied directly to the geography itself, rather than one of many additional amenities. Travelers increasingly look past the continent’s famous spa capitals for those same classic ideas taken even further further: thermal water, dense forest, and centuries-old local rituals approached as seriously as the treatments themselves.
Alongside storied properties like FORESTIS in the Dolomites and Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, a newer wave of resorts in Montenegro, Croatia, Hungary and elsewhere in Eastern Europe is proving that geothermal springs and regional botanicals don’t have to come with Riviera prices.
In many instances what sets the top wellness properties apart isn’t the number of stars in the rating, but the architecture itself. Examples include a retreat cut into cliffs of Crete to a cedar-clad clinic in the Alps. The philosophy behind the effort is simple: let the building do as much of the wellness work as anything on the treatment menu.
Acro Suites
Agia Pelagia, Crete
Architect Alexandros Kolovos remembers standing on the cliffs above Agia Pelagia during early site visits and thinking he felt like a seagull resting on a rocky slope. He then set out to build that idea into every room. The result, designed with sisters Konstantina and Danae Orfanaki after an original concept by CMH Architecture, passed over an early idea for small, whitewashed Santorini-style buildings in favor of something rougher and more site-specific: seven Cave Suites carved from the limestone cliff face by Cretan sculptors, then plastered over to preserve the rock’s raw texture, alongside a cliffside Acroterra Villa with its own infinity pool over the Aegean. The caves aren’t just atmospheric – the surrounding stone mass keeps interiors at a stable temperature year-round with no air conditioning or heating needed.
That same idea of letting the landscape do the work carries into Balance, the adults-only wellness program: a Byzantine-style bathhouse with a marble hammam, and an Asana Yoga Shala the resort describes as “a piece of architecture born from a passion for yoga.” Local Mylopotamos stone, marble quarried from Sinai and Crete’s own Phaistos, and reclaimed wood continue outward into three restaurants – Cretan cooking at Cremnos, an on-site olive grove restaurant called Eleonas, Japanese-Peruvian plates at UMI.
FORESTIS Brixen
Dolomites, Italy
FORESTIS sits at 5,906 feet on Mount Plose, above medieval Brixen, where architect Armin Sader designed the hotel’s towers as reinterpretations of tree trunks, rising only as high as the forest around them so the building recedes into the treeline instead of dominating it. Untreated spruce, larch and mountain pine were used structurally, not just decoratively, so the wood’s scent moves through the interiors along with the consistent view.
FORESTIS itself holds two Michelin Keys, and at YERA the kitchen sticks to what actually grows nearby, forest and farm rather than flown in. The spa’s treatments draw on that same pine, spruce and larch, pools fed by Mount Plose’s spring water, and in winter skiers can go from the lift to the door with barely a stop in between.
The Retreat at Blue Lagoon
Grindavík, Iceland
The Blue Lagoon started as runoff water pumped up from a geothermal plant next door that turned out to be better for soaking in than anyone expected. Since 2018, The Retreat has been the quieter way to see it: architect Sigríður Sigþórsdóttir, who also designed the original Blue Lagoon spa, surveyed the lava’s cracks and fissures before laying out the 60 suites, adapting the plan as the rock allowed rather than forcing it. (Nearby volcanic activity has prompted brief, precautionary closures since 2023 so be sure to check current status before booking.)
The building descends toward the spa as it goes, moving guests further away from natural light to create a more private experience. Below ground, a spa carved directly into the lava works through saunas, steam rooms and a cold-water circuit, every treatment drawing on the silica, algae and other minerals in the water outside.
Lanserhof Lans
Tyrol, Austria
Lanserhof got its start here in 1984, in a small Tyrolean village above Innsbruck. Architect Christoph Ingenhoven went through the Lanserhof detox program himself before designing the $26 million renovation that reshaped the property in 2017: an oval building wrapped in untreated red cedar, built around two existing pines. Every treatment room faces the Alps and underground spaces are lit through excavated windows. The largest of the 67 rooms, a 1,075-square-foot Panorama Suite, has its own sauna; a physician oversees separate tracks for hormonal balance, mental health and longevity, with meals following the group’s Energy Cuisine concept.
Arctic Bath Harads
Swedish Lapland, Sweden
Arctic Bath, on the Lule River in Swedish Lapland, changes with the seasons the way nothing else on this list does. Architects Bertil Harström and Johan Kauppi shaped the circular main building like a log jam, engineered to freeze solid into the ice every winter and float free again each summer. At its center, an open-air plunge pool sits inside the rotunda so bathers can see the sky year-round.
Of the twelve cabins, six float alongside the main building and six sit on shore among the birch trees, all designed by Annkathrin Lundqvist using colors and materials meant to keep guests connected to the landscape. The spa keeps its saunas and hot baths going, plus treatments from c/o Gerd, made with Jokkmokk blueberries and cloudberries; outside, the activities are rooted in local Sámi tradition: reindeer encounters with Sámi herders, moose calling, and dog sledding.
One&Only Portonovi
Herceg Novi, Montenegro
The Bay of Kotor looks more like a fjord than anything else on the Adriatic, with mountains that drop straight into the water. One&Only Portonovi’s architecture is a deliberate mix of proportions — Venetian volume and symmetry, Ottoman arches, Montenegrin stone and construction methods — the work of architect Jean-Michel Gathy, who carried that same hammam-and-arches logic into the wellness building itself.
The result is Chenot Espace, a 43,000-square-foot spa split into six departments – Medical, Human Performance, Medical Aesthetic, Aesthetic, Hydrotherapy and Sport & Fitness – with 28 treatment rooms organized around the Swiss Chenot Method. The old towns of Kotor and Perast are a short boat ride away.
Maslina Resort
Stari Grad, Hvar,
Croatian people have been coming to Hvar for its climate since at least 1868, and Stari Grad, just outside the resort, has been inhabited since Greek colonists founded it in 384 BC — one of the oldest towns in Europe. Masalina’s six low, wood-clad pavilions and three seafront villas were a deliberate choice by architect Tomislav Alujević, who split the resort apart instead of building one hotel block.
Built low in local Brač stone and terracotta to disappear into the pine and olive groves around it, the resort holds 53 rooms and villas, eight with their own plunge pools. The Pharomatiq Wellness spa works entirely from what grows wild on Hvar, organizing treatments into four categories: Purify, Vitality, Longevity and Serenity.
BOTANIQ Castle of Tura
Tura, Hungary
Baron Sigmund Schossberger built this castle in 1883, about 31 miles northeast of Budapest, as a gift for his wife Therese, borrowing the look of a Loire Valley château the way a lot of Central European aristocrats did at the time. A 2016-2020 restoration laser-scanned the building first, rebuilt its 20 decorative chimneys brick by brick, re-roofed it in slate from the original quarry, and restored its original frescoes. There are only 19 rooms and suites, the largest being the 1,076-square-foot Schossberger Suite, with a dining room set inside the original clock tower. A 25-acre park and a tennis court round out the grounds.
Lily of the Valley La Croix-Valmer, French Riviera, France
A few minutes outside Saint-Tropez, Lily of the Valley claims one of the last undeveloped stretches of Riviera coastline, the protected Cap Lardier estate, looking out over three miles of the Plage de Gigaro. Philippe Starck designed it as dozens of low, single-story houses scattered through the pines, preserving the century-old olive and pine trees already on-site. The concrete for the walls and terraces was custom-mixed on location and tested more than twenty times until it took on the look of something that had always been there.
The cornerstone of the property is the Shape Club, a 21,500-square-foot wellness facility built around a semi-Olympic heated pool, and featuring a Technogym studio, a Pilates reformer studio, a cryotherapy room, and a Nordic circuit of sauna, hammam, cold plunge and snow shower. Programs run four to fourteen days, targeting weight loss, detox, sport performance or aging well.
