Here’s a confession: from New Orleans to Tel Aviv, some of the world’s chicest hotels are housed on holy ground. These former convents and churches pay homage to their priestly pasts while looking toward the future.
LessA decade of painstaking restoration overseen by the Italian government saw this cliffside 17th-century monastery on the Amalfi Coast become this hotel. All 20 suites are set inside former nuns’ quarters and decorated with centuries-old tapestries and vintage maps. Each room is named after plants grown by the nuns in the cantilevered garden. The vaulted spa, in what used to be the winery, is stocked with products from Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the oldest pharmacy in the world.
A former schoolhouse, rectory, church, and convent, Hotel Peter & Paul is a heavenly oasis in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. With the help of design studio Ash, Nathalie Jordi opened the hotel in 2018, making every effort to maintain its original aesthetic. God is in the details: arched showers with hand-painted Mexican tile; lamps converted from vintage incense burners found in church; and a tenebrae gracing the lobby entrance, where three cypress staircases meet.
Belgian hotelier Mouche Van Hool of Antwerp’s trendy Hotel Julien reimagined a crumbling Augustinian convent and former military hospitalital in the city’s Het Groen Kwartier district. He devoted four years to the project, maintaining the original Neoclassical pilasters, grey-green timber paneling, and hand-painted floor tiles while introducing contemporary style. This is best observed in the former chapel, now a stylish bar and lounge, where a grand domed ceiling has been painted jet black.
Built as a Spanish seminary more than 300 years ago, Monasterio, a Belmond Hotel, is centered on a lush central courtyard flanked with cloistered walls and planted with fragrant gardens. It’s a serene place to sip a Pisco sour and marvel at the grand cedar tree, which is as old as the seminary itself. The property’s centerpiece, however, is the on-site chapel, which, like many of the city’s Christian worship sites, was built on top of a former Inca palace.
This former coaching inn is set on the grounds of the historic Bolton Abbey estate, a rambling, bucolic landscape depicted in the canvases of great English painters like Turner, Ruskin, and Royle. While the hotel is a short stroll from the 12th-century Augustinian monastery, the property is suffused with an almost divine light— all gleaming antiques and gilded frames, sparkling views of the River Wharfe, and a glass-walled conservatory where you can enjoy afternoon tea in the sunshine.
For a remote, car-free isle off the coast of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, Lopud generates plenty of attention. In July, Victoria and David Beckham celebrated their wedding anniversary at Lopud 1483, a restored 15th-century Franciscan monastery helmed by Francesca von Habsburg, one of the world’s largest art collectors. The sprawling fortress complex is decorated with historical rarities: 18th-century angels, a Renaissance tapestry from France, and Florentine paintings from the 1620s.
Located in the heart of France's Loire Valley, Fontevraud is a contemporary hotel located in the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, a sprawling, 32-acre complex which dates back to 1101. Clean lines and a warm palette compliment the building's original stone walls and natural light. The hotel's Michelin-star restaurant is lauded for its hyper-local, sustainable approach; vegetables come from the 1.2 acre on-site Abbey garden, and the hotel even has its own hives supplying fresh honey.
In the mythical region of Cappadocia, marked by tall, conical rock formations known as "fairy chimneys" and a sky full of hot air balloons, this hotel was built on the remains of a thousand-year-old monastery. The restoration revealed underground caves and tunnels leading to a hidden wine cellar. Built using local stones and wood, the rooms combine traditional Turkish crafts with contemporary design. In the "Cave Suite," find a jacuzzi and sweeping views of the otherworldly Pigeon Valley.