ZEYNA© CREATIVE

There are hotels, and then there is the Mandarin Oriental Ritz. Situated on the Paseo del Prado — the same stretch of boulevard that connects the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen — it occupies a position in Madrid’s geography that is at once central and somehow apart. The building, designed by Charles Mewès in 1910, was the first hotel in Spain to have private bathrooms in every room. More than a century later, it still sets the standard.

This spring, the Spa by Clarins has unveiled a new seasonal programme called Primavera Botánica, developed in collaboration with herbalists from the Sierra de Guadarrama. The treatments use hand-harvested rosemary, lavender and cistus — plants that grow within two hours of the hotel — alongside Clarins’s signature plant-based formulations. The flagship treatment is a ninety-minute ritual that begins with a dry body brushing, moves into a warm rosemary-infused compress, and ends with a scalp massage using a rosemary and cedarwood oil. It smells, quite literally, like the Spanish countryside after rain.

The spa itself — pools, thermal circuit, treatment rooms — was redesigned during the hotel’s 2021 restoration and manages the difficult trick of feeling genuinely contemporary while still honouring the building’s Belle Époque bones. The mosaic tilework, sourced from a workshop in Talavera de la Reina, is particularly beautiful.

The Primavera Botánica programme runs through June 30. Treatments from €180. Guests staying at the hotel receive priority booking.