Europa Hotel, Belfast

Europa Hotel, Belfast

The Europa Hotel is a four-star hotel in Great Victoria Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland. It has hosted presidents, prime ministers and celebrities, including President Bill Clinton during his visits to Belfast in 1995 and 1998. It is known as the "most bombed hotel in Europe" and the "most bombed hotel in the world" after having suffered 28 bomb attacks during the Troubles.

The hotel has 272 bedrooms following major refurbishment, including 92 executive suites. On the first floor is the Piano Bar Restaurant and there is also a bistro and bar. It also has a Eurobusiness centre, conference and exhibition centre and 16 flexible conference and banqueting suites, as well as a 12th-floor penthouse suite.

It opened in July 1971 and was built on the site of the former Great Northern Railway station. The architects were Sydney Kaye and Eric Firkin & Partners, the building height was 51 metres. During the Troubles, the hotel, where most journalists covering the Troubles stayed, was known as Europe’s most bombed hotel, earning the name “the Hardboard Hotel”. The hotel was blown up by the Provisional IRA in 1993 and damaged so badly that it sold for only £4.4m.

The Europa Hotel became part of the Hastings Hotels group on 3 August 1993, whereupon it was announced that it would close for the first time in its 22-year history to allow for major refurbishment. Following an £8m investment, the hotel reopened in February 1994, the first official event being the Flax Trust Ball, a gala evening for 500 local and international dignitaries. President Clinton and First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton stayed in the hotel in November 1995. The presidential entourage booked 110 rooms at the hotel. The suite used by the Clintons was subsequently renamed the Clinton Suite. Started in early 2008, an extension to the hotel increased the height of a rear wing of the hotel by seven floors to twelve and increased bedrooms from 240 to 272. The extension was designed by Robinson McIlwaine Architects and was completed late in 2008.
Sight description based on Wikipedia.

Want to visit this sight? Check out these Self-Guided Walking Tours in Belfast. Alternatively, you can download the mobile app "GPSmyCity: Walks in 1K+ Cities" from Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The app turns your mobile device to a personal tour guide and it works offline, so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.

Download The GPSmyCity App

Europa Hotel on Map

Sight Name: Europa Hotel
Sight Location: Belfast, Ireland (See walking tours in Belfast)
Sight Type: Attraction/Landmark

Walking Tours in Belfast, Ireland

Create Your Own Walk in Belfast

Create Your Own Walk in Belfast

Creating your own self-guided walk in Belfast is easy and fun. Choose the city attractions that you want to see and a walk route map will be created just for you. You can even set your hotel as the start point of the walk.
The Troubles and Peace Process Landmarks

The Troubles and Peace Process Landmarks

Decades past the official end of The Troubles in Belfast, the price of peace in Northern Ireland remains high. One of the means with which to secure it, back in 1969, was erecting a wall to physically separate the capital's warring Protestant and Catholic communities. Known since as the Peace Wall, the structure has become a popular tourist attraction for the multiple murals painted thereon...  view more

Tour Duration: 1 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.1 Km or 1.3 Miles
Belfast Victorian Architecture Jewels

Belfast Victorian Architecture Jewels

Described as “modestly scaled, undemonstrative, somewhat solid in aspect, and usually restrained (sometimes even austere) in its use of external decoration”, the urban landscape of Belfast has been influenced by the demands of shipbuilding and linen industry, much as transitioning between culture, arts, commerce, and education. Still, the architectural spectrum of the city is quite broad and...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.9 Km or 1.8 Miles
Belfast Introduction Walking Tour

Belfast Introduction Walking Tour

For over a century, the political situation of Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, has been the source of strife, first between the Crown-loyal Protestants and Irish Catholics, and more recently between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Sitting on the banks of the River Lagan where it meets the Irish Sea, the city owes its name to this coastal condition, with "Belfast"...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 3.5 Km or 2.2 Miles