Hotels in monasteries

3 of a kind: Threehotels in monasteries

VILLA SAN MICHELE, ITALY

Via Doccia 4, 50014 Fiesole, Florence, Italy.

Tel: 0039-055567-8200, villasanmichele.com

Friars could certainly have kept an eye on Florentines from this 15th-century Renaissance stunner on a hill above Florence. It offers spectacular views of the city and its ornate patchwork of roofs.

The building’s facade was reputedly designed by Michaelangelo, but other artworks were stripped out in 1808 when Napoleon dissolved the monastic orders, these included a triptych attributed to Niccolò di Piero Gerini.

In 1900, Henry White Cannon from New York bought the building and restored it, but it was damaged in the second World War. It was then sold again to be used as a home, but when renovation proved too expensive the owner turned it into a hotel.

Orient-Express Hotels bought it in 1982 and restored it in cooperation with the Florence Fine Arts Authority.

Cookery classes are run from here and you can eat out on a loggia, among lemon trees and roses, gazing upon Florence and the Arno Valley.

Rooms:There are 46 rooms, including 25 suites and junior suites, in the old monastery building. Each is decorated differently. Doubles from €550.

AUGUSTINE HOTEL, PRAGUE

Letenska, Prague, Czech Republic.

Tel: 0042-026611-2233, theaugustine.com

The Augustine hotel, in Prague’s Baroque quarter at the foot of the castle, occupies seven cloistered buildings, including a brewery and the 13th-century St Thomas’s Monastery. Augustinian monks still inhabit the latter but the rest has become a Rocco Forte hotel, whose interior (as with most hotels in the chain) was designed by Olga Polizzi, in this case with London designers RDD. They were inspired by 1930s Czech Cubism.

The two bars toast the building’s past: one is in a vaulted, double-height hall with 19th-century Baroque frescoes, and the other, complete with 17th century stalactites and stalagmites, is in the cellar where monks brewed beer. Guests can also have exclusive access to the old library.

Rooms:There are 101 rooms, including 16 suites in the various buildings; one is in its own three-storey tower. The bedrooms have views over courtyards, a chapel or Prague Castle, and have period architectural details such vaulted ceilings and original doors. Doubles from €320.

PARADOR DE LEON, SPAIN

Plaza de San Marcos, Leon, Spain.

Tel: 0034-987237300, parador.es

The San Marcos Monastery was built in the 16th century on the site of a pre-existing 11th-century monastery. The 100m-long facade of the impressive Renaissance building is adorned with carvings of religious and historical events.

Within are spacious stone rooms, including halls, a lobby and library, and outside there are courtyards and cloisters overlooking a garden.

The Parador de Leon is on the Camino Santiago de Compostela and, in one of its guises, was the headquarters of the Order of Saint James whose soldiers offered protection to pilgrims. It is a 15-minute walk to the old town of Leon, whose sites include a cathedral and the large, Modernist Casa de Botines by architect Antoni Gaudi.

Rooms:There are 195 twin rooms (how monastic), 15 doubles and 16 suites. The suites are in the old building and the others are in a modern extension. Doubles from €115.