Mandarin Oriental, Cortina d'Ampezzo Prepares Its First Mountain Resort for the Winter Olympics

Mandarin Oriental has never operated a mountain resort, and its first is arriving at a genuinely significant moment for its host town. Mandarin Oriental, Cortina d'Ampezzo is being built inside the historic Grand Hotel Cristallo, an Art Nouveau building constructed in 1901 by the Menardi family, with a refurbishment led by Herzog & de Meuron, the same architecture firm behind the brand's Lake Como restaurant redesign.

The 83-room and suite property is timed to align with the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which put the town in the global spotlight in February 2026 and set an ambitious deadline for a project of this scale. Cortina d'Ampezzo has long been one of the Dolomites' most storied ski towns, and a Mandarin Oriental address gives it a new tier of luxury hospitality to match the international attention the Olympics brought.

For a brand built almost entirely around coastal and urban addresses, a first mountain resort is a genuine departure, and doing it inside a building with more than a century of history raises the stakes considerably. Cortina d'Ampezzo's Olympic moment has given Mandarin Oriental both the reason and the audience to make its alpine debut count.

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