Danish Luxury

Hotels Aarhus and the towns

Hotel Royal

A hotel of 1838 on the square beside Aarhus Cathedral, with its own art collection, run by the Danish family company Bühlmann Hotels.

Opened
1838
Company
Bühlmann Hotels
Address
Store Torv 4, 8000 Aarhus C

Visit hotelroyal.dk

The hotel on Store Torv
The hotel on Store Torv
The King's Suite under the roof
The King's Suite under the roof

Pictures © Bühlmann Hotels, from hotelroyal.dk.

Why it is renowned

The MICHELIN Guide selects Hotel Royal among its hotels in Aarhus.1 It notes that the hotel has been in business for more than 175 years and keeps a nineteenth-century atmosphere in rooms that mix classic and modern, with Queen's Garden serving breakfast by day and cocktails later.2

The story

Hotel Royal opened in 1838 on the cathedral square in Aarhus.3 The innkeeper Niels Larsen from Odense made it out of two older buildings, one of them the King's House, Kongens Gaard, which gave the hotel its name.4 In 1902 a new building by Eggert Achen and Thorkel Møller replaced half of the old hotel and gave it its front on Store Torv and Bispetorv.4 Its guests have included Johanne Luise Heiberg, Hans Christian Andersen and Louis Armstrong.3 Jens Richard Pedersen took it over in 1983.3 In 2023 it joined Bühlmann Hotels, a family hotel group founded in Aalborg in 2007, and it reopened in 2024 after a full renovation.5 The walls carry prints and paintings by Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Joan Miró and Wassily Kandinsky, and the Polish painter Andrzej Kowalczyk painted the 53 Danish monarchs from Gorm the Old to Queen Margrethe for its floors.3

What to know it by

  • Store Torv façade41902Eggert Achen and Thorkel MøllerThe building facing the cathedral square
  • Queen's Garden41983Garden room built in the renovation of 1983
  • The monarchs3Andrzej KowalczykPortraits of 53 Danish monarchs on the hotel's floors
  • Casino Royal41991Casino in the old Marble Room, with an entrance by 3XN
Sources
  1. Find your hotel in Aarhus, MICHELIN Guide. guide.michelin.com, read 29 September 2026.
  2. Hotel Royal, MICHELIN Guide. guide.michelin.com, read 29 September 2026.
  3. Om Hotel Royal, boutiquehotel i hjertet af Aarhus. hotelroyal.dk, read 29 September 2026.
  4. Hotel Royal, Aarhus, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, read 29 September 2026.
  5. Bühlmann Hotels, history. buhlmann.dk, read 29 September 2026.

Last checked 30 September 2026, against the maker's own pages.