These 5 Design Hotels Used to Be Monasteries
Would you want to stay in a former monastery? Until just a few years ago, I’d be more drawn to the idea of visiting a vibrant città d’arte; a verdant hilltop town not too far from a lively beach; an overlooked European capital with an exciting nightlife scene; you get the vibe. Ask me the same question now, and I wouldn’t think about it twice.
So it’s no surprise to me that travelers are finding solace in actively seeking more secluded stays. And design hotels tucked inside former monasteries are the ultimate peaceful retreat. There is a reason why digital detoxes and similar wellness-led alternatives to traditional vacations are trending: we all deserve a break.
Originally erected away from the crowds and the chaos of populated urban areas on hilltops, mountains, or deep in the countryside, monasteries were designed to provide monks or nuns living there a place to work, pray, and be an active part of their religious community. Their championing of peace, study, and personal as well as spiritual growth makes them the ideal location to put yourself first — not your weekly errands, not your work, or your laundry.
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Is this the start of a new monastery hotel renaissance? These five hideouts below give us good reasons to think so.
Vocabolo Moscatelli. Calzolaro di Umbertide, Perugia, IT
I am personally crushing on this tastefully reinvented monastery immersed in the Umbrian countryside, and will make a point of visiting it firsthand to see whether it looks as good as it does in pictures in real life.
(Image credit: © fabiosem. Courtesy of Vocabolo Moscatelli. Design: Archiloop)
Via del Refari 2 Calzolaro di, 06019 Umbertide PG, Italy
Housed in a 12th-century monastery set on the Umbrian hills, Vocabolo Moscatelli is a 12-suite hotel with a storied past and just as layered design credentials. The work of Florence studio Archiloop’s Jacopo Venerosi Pesciolini, it pairs the stone-clad monastery’s original patina with tactile wood floors, exposed terracotta, and beamed ceilings.
For years, the owners, Frederik Kubierschky and Catharina Lütjens, dreamed of a vegetation-enclosed retreat where travelers could find and embrace their own rhythm. They made that dream into a reality when they inaugurated Vocabolo Moscatelli in 2022. Unlike other hotels, here breakfast is served at your convenience, even past 10am, the restaurant serves creative Umbrian cuisine jazzed by global influences, while each of the 12 suites — including garden and spa-equipped ones — writes a new chapter in the landmark’s history through quirky-cool design pieces, original artwork, and enveloping fabrics chosen to expand and reflect the lure of its surroundings. See for yourself, but I suspect we have just found one of our new favorite hotels in Italy.
Book your stay at Vocabolo Moscatelli.
Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay. Cernay-la-Ville, FR
Resort-core meets country charm with a side of Dior at this fairytale of a French holiday stay.
(Image credit: Abbaye des Vaux de Cerna. Design: Cordelia de Castellane)
Domaine de l’Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, 78720 Cernay-la-Ville, France
Founded in 1118 as a Cistercian abbey and later revived by Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild, 185-acre estate Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay reinterprets every anecdote and visual element that’s been part of the history of its buildings into a tapestry of pattern, texture, and color. Beautifully orchestrated by Cordelia de Castellane, Dior Maison’s artistic director, for Paris Society’s Laurent de Gourcuff, the stay sees plush fabrics and eccentric motifs employed to soften the property’s monastic bones. Now leaning on the baroque, Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay unfolds across the abbey, stable yard, and pavilions, and features over 145 rooms dotting the adjacent forest, lake, and gardens. With fine dining and a panoramic spa included in the price, this isn’t the place to disappoint.
Book your stay at Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay.
Villa Paola. Tropea, IT
An address of many lives, Tropea’s Villa Paola was originally a monastery erected in the 1540s. In the 19th century, the structure transitioned from a sacred building into a leather processing and trade workshop, before becoming a private family residence and, finally, a luxury boutique hotel one century later.
(Image credit: Villa Paola. Design: Palomba Serafini Associati)
Contrada Paola, 89861 Tropea VV, Italy
A pink-tinted palace standing tall on one of the most beautiful viewpoints the southern Italian region of Calabria has to offer in Tropea, Villa Paola was built in 1543 by monks of the Order of Minims. Spanning five centuries, the life of this cliffside landmark has just been made more vibrant thanks to a thorough restoration led by Italian studio Palomba Serafini Associati, who preserved the 18th-century cloister and paired it with a playful Liberty-style wing.
Relaunched this summer, Villa Paola has been a hotel since the 1970s, when Swiss-born owner Marie Christine Born transformed the once sacred complex into an adults-only bolthole with just a dozen guest rooms perched over the Tyrrhenian Sea. Yet, some nods to the rigorous religious faith that used to imbue its aisles remain, for example, in the vegetable-rich menu of in-house restaurant De’ Minimi, inspired by the plant-forward diet of resident friar San Francesco da Paola. Where da Paola set the tone for the culinary register of the sojourn, the restraint of priesthood can be observed in its essentially chic suites: think sinuous lines, muted palettes, and the occasional, unexpected mural twist.
Book your stay at Villa Paola.
Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp. Antwerp, BE
With its verdant greenery and stuck-in-time scenery, Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp lures guests into forgetting about anything else.
(Image credit: Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp)
Leopoldstraat 26, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
Spread out across five buildings dating from the 12th to 19th centuries — including a former infirmary, chapel, rectory, and pharmacy — the Augustinian convent complex Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp calls home was restored by AIDarchitecten with architect Eric De Vocht and Maryse Odeurs in line with wabi-sabi principles, leaving its scuffed plaster and aged beams intact.
At the heart of the hotel rises the city’s historic Botanic Garden, a green lung first planted by 16th-century apothecary Pieter Coudenberg in an attempt to cultivate medicinal herbs for the sick. 108 rooms, each exuding the grounding calm of the Japanese design movement, are placed all around it, decorated with dark woods, monochrome furniture in rounded forms, and earthy materials throughout. The convent’s original invigorating spirit can still be breathed in the stay’s spa, focused on physiotherapy and plant-based healing. Also on site are four Michelin Guide restaurants cooking up feasts merging rigour with urban indulgence.
Book your stay at Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp.
Hôtel du Couvent. Nice, FR
Designed as a self-sustaining property, this bucolic retreat’s sumptuous interiors, homegrown produce, and wellness focus will immerse you in the best of Mediterranean lifestyle.
(Image credit: Adrianna Glaviano.)
1 Rue Honoré Ugo, 06300 Nice, France
We’ve reviewed it, relied on it as an agritourism case study, and continued to admire its charming estate long after first coming across it: Hôtel du Couvent truly is the gift that keeps on giving. Formerly the home of the Order of Saint Claire, the 1604 building functioned as a convent through the 1980s. Then, having noticed that it had been left vacant, Valéry Grégo spent a decade restoring it with Festen and Studio Mumbai. The resulting holiday retreat, inaugurated June 20, 2024, juxtaposes the original hand-built lime, stone, and timber structure alongside new sage-shuttered wings. Its 88 rooms range from austere former cells oozing with a sense of mystery and nostalgia to full suites overlooking the Mediterranean. True to the nuns’ self-sufficient routines, the hotel runs its own bakery, herbalist shop, and terraced garden that supplies its kitchens, plus a Saturday farmers’ market — turning monastic self-reliance into the property’s whole hospitality model, as former design editor Aditi Sharma reported when she visited.
Book your stay at Hôtel du Couvent.
Booking a monastery hotel isn’t the only way to ensure your time off will be peaceful this year. From the most picturesque places to visit and sleep outside of Paris to the coolest farm stays in the UK, we have got you covered.
For more bucolic getaways, revisit our annual travel trends report, or read our review of one of our favorite ones, Osip.
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