The Hôtel du Palais is a hotel located beside the Atlantic beach in the resort town of Biarritz, on the Côte Basque in the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It was originally built for the Empress Eugénie around 1855 as a summer villa. It was due to the visits of the imperial couple that the village of Biarritz developed into a fashionable resort. In 1880 the villa was sold and converted into a hotel casino. It was devastated by fire in 1903, but was lavishly rebuilt and enlarged within the original walls. For many years the hotel attracted the international elite, including members of the European royalty such as the British King Edward VII, who paid several extended visits. Although the hotel later fell into disrepair, and was closed for a while in the 1950s, it has since been refurbished and is again a luxury hotel.
The building is set on the main beach of the town, which lies on the rugged coast of the Bay of Biscay at the foot of the Pyrenees. In 1854 the emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie bought several acres of dunes in Biarritz and gave the engineer Dagueret the task of establishing a summer home surrounded by gardens, woods, meadows, a pond and outbuildings. Napoleon III chose the location near to Spain so his wife would not get homesick for her native country.Hippolyte Durand was given the job of designing the Villa Eugénie and outbuildings, and overseeing construction, which began in 1854. Durand was abruptly dismissed in June 1855 and replaced by the twenty-seven-year-old architect Louis-Auguste Couvrechef, who adopted a less austere style. Couvrechef died in 1858 and was succeeded by the architect Gabriel-Auguste Ancelet. Ancelet built a new wing facing the lighthouse. Ancelet was succeeded by Auguste Lafollye, who added an attic with rooms for the staff.
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