You don’t need to feel the spirits to spend the night at one of these religious sites-turned-luxury hotels. With original details like arched colonnades, stained-glass windows, and gold-flecked altars, these reborn icons are sure to inspire utter devotion, even among non-believers. From a Baroque church in Cusco to a Qing Dynasty temple in Beijing, here are six sanctums of high design.
Monastero Santa Rosa, Amalfi
A decade of painstaking restoration overseen by the Italian government saw the transformation of this 17th-century monastery into a romantic boutique hotel. First-time hotelier Bianca Sharma spotted the clifftop nunnery while boating along the Amalfi Coast and purchased the property just days later, enchanted by its history and heavenly perch overlooking the Gulf of Salerno and the towns of Ravello and Positano. All 20 suites are set inside former nuns’ quarters and decorated with locally sourced antiques like centuries-old tapestries and vintage maps. Each room is named after different herbs and plants grown by the nuns in the exquisite cantilevered garden, abloom with flowering roses and jasmine as well as pomegranate and lemon trees. Don’t leave without visiting the vaulted spa, which is set inside the nuns’ former winery and stocked with oils, tinctures, and creams from Florence’s Santa Maria Novella pharmacy— the oldest in the world.
Hotel Peter & Paul, New Orleans
A former schoolhouse, rectory, church, and convent, Hotel Peter & Paul embodies the kind of Old World luxury you’d find in the European countryside— a heavenly Palo Santo-scented oasis in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. With the help of design studio Ash, Ash and Nathalie Jordi opened the hotel in late 2018, making every effort to maintain the building’s original details and aesthetic; in the schoolhouse building, rooms are equipped with floor-length gingham curtains and canopy beds to match. The rectory, where their Elysian Bar restaurant is located, is more baroque, with blush walls, a crystal chandelier, and a gargantuan limestone tub sourced from Texas outside the bathroom. In the convent, where the Marianite nuns lived, you’ll now find the Sundae Best ice cream parlor, while the original church— open for tours upon request— hosts yoga classes, weddings, and other community events. At Peter and Paul, God is in the details: arched showers with hand-painted Mexican tile, recalling ecclesiastical archways; lamps converted from vintage incense burners found in church; and a tenebrae gracing the lobby entrance, where three cypress staircases meet.
The Jaffa, Tel Aviv
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Arabesque trellises, veined Carrara marble, and Roman columns set the scene for a seriously enlightened stay at The Jaffa, a 19th-century convent and hospital in Tel Aviv’s most ancient neighborhood. British designer John Pawson and Israeli conservationist Ramy Gill led the building’s faithful conversation, which involved digging 16 feet below ground to unearth the structure’s foundation. It was an effort that uncovered ancient artifacts, bones, and a Crusader wall dating to the 13th-century, thus pushing back the hotel’s opening by several years. But the delay was well worth it—just feast your eyes on the hotel’s triple-height bar and lounge, carved out of a deconsecrated chapel and featuring a vaulted ceiling, stained glass windows, and bench seating paired with whimsical Cini Boeri chairs and ottomans.
The August, Antwerp
For her second hospitality project, Belgian hotelier Mouche Van Hool of Antwerp’s trendy Hotel Julien tapped local architect Vincent Van Duysen to reimagine a crumbling Augustinian convent and former military hospitalital in the city’s Het Groen Kwartier district. Van Duysen devoted four years to overhauling the listed heritage site, maintaining the original Neoclassical pilasters, grey-green timber paneling, and hand-painted floor tiles while introducing his trademark sober, restrained 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, injecting masculine edge into an otherwise airy, sacred space. The 44 rooms occupy former nuns' quarters (opt for an upper-level room to sleep in a cocoon-like space under crisscrossing wooden beams), and there's a spa with a hammam and an outdoor swimming "pond." For the ultimate sense of respite, however, retreat to the walled gardens, where overgrown bushes of lavender, evergreen oaks, and climbing vines will have you contemplating the virtues of monastic living.
Monasterio, Cusco
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. With a glimmering gold altar, grand stone archways, and large-scale oil paintings, the church is a jewel of Spanish colonial architecture—and a great place to begin a personalized tour of the hotel led by an expert in religious art.
The Devonshire Arms Hotel & Spa, Yorkshire Dales
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.
