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Show Mosaics, sculptures and tapestries are part of Spains luxury museum-hotel- s text and plioto by Gordon E. Rowley LN MOST PLACES, staying overnight in a museum is likely to get you several days free accommodation in the local lock-u- p But in Spain, putting up for the night in a museum is not only possible, its preferable For instance, in Leon, the capital of Old Castile, convent turned luxury you can stay in a hotel so full of Roman mosaics, Gothic sculptures, and antique tapestries, it has a resident curator In Santiago de Compostela your bed could be a canopied in a hospice built by Ferdinand and Isabella for pilgrims to the shrine of St James And m Rascafria, near Madrid, you can spend the night in an ancient Carthusian monastery where the other residents include 14 Benedictine monks who grow grapes, make cheese and raise trout Most travelers to Spain are familiar with its inns created out of paradores, those government-ruold castles, monasteries, and deserted palaces. But although paradores are numerous and inexpensive (one of the best travel buys in Europe, in fact), they are usually small, difficult to book in peak seasons, and often limit the number of days a visitor may stay. ON THE OTHER hand, there are a small number of relatively government-ru- n luxury hotels created out of larger national monuments, that have many rooms, fine restaurants, and large staffs that cater to a guests every whim. And because this is Spain, one of the few European countries where the dollar still goes farther than at home, their rates are not high by North American standards. It all began in the 1950s when a Spanish government agency called ENTURSA was given the job of restoring the old Hostal de li s Reyes Catolicos in Santiago de Compostela. Lying in the northwest comer of Spain, the medieval city of Santiago had been a place of pilgrimage since the 9th century when a hermit monk led by a bright star, legend has it. gold brocade into tasseled cushions and bed canopies And when it opened, in July of 1954, 156 rooms that once sheltered sandal-cla- d pilgrims had not only been refurbished and furnished with antiques and quality reproductions, but fitted out with such creature telecomforts as heated towel racks, direct-dia- l phones, and thick terrycloth bathrobes Everywhere you wander in this celebrated inn you'll find something to give you the oohs and aahs-frothe crest of its patron king and queen over the entrance, through its passageways with oak tables and breakfronts holding Talavera ceramics, to its four inner courtyards, named for the four Evangelists. y four-post- n little-know- Gordon E. Rowley is a free-lanc- e who lives in Esmond, R.I. travel writer OFF THE LOBBY, behind an enormous forged-irogrille, is the Royal Chapel, considered a Gothic masterpiece but used now, not for prayer, but for "Music in Compostela, a senes of concerts that runs to annually from Even the restaurants and dining rooms hold surprises. One is houses in an arched, underground stable; another looks out onto the histone Plaza de Espana, while a third, the Royal Dining Room, is hung with tapestries and has an ancient closet in which knights stacked their armor before sitting down to eat. If all that doesnt impress you, consider the Hotel de San Marcos in Leon, which James Michener in his book Iberia calls probably the finest hotel in hotel Europe. The San Marcos is not only a five-stbut a tourist attraction unto itself, with a functioning chapel, a medieval cloister, and art gallery, and an archaelogical museum. ITS FURNISHINGS include 800 hand-mad- e rugs, antique clocks and tapestries, and 1,027 paintings, drawings and lithographs. Covering four acres and set behind a block-lonfacade so intricately carved it resembles a stone wedding cake, San Marcos dates from the early 1500s n discovered the burial place of St. James the Apostle. Thousands of the faithful made the journey each year, some from as far away as Paris. They came over the Pyrenees, through Navarre and Leon, braving the heat, starvation, polluted waters, and thieves. Some did not make it; others arrived barely alive. In the 15th century, soon after Columbus discovered America, Ferdinand and Isabella built the hostel as a refuge for pilgrims. ("Ryes Catolicos literally means Catholic monarchs, but in Spain is synonymous with Ferdinand and Isabella.) THE HOSTEL TOOK in the ill as well as the weary and by the erly 1500s had become the foremost hospital in Europe, a center of medical learning without peer. Four centuries later, in 1950, however, it was badly in need of repair. Enter ENTURSA, with $10 million and the mission of saving a national monument and providing employment for construction workers, craftsmen, artists, and ultimately, hotel staff. Rushing to make it ready for the Holy Year of 1954, two thousand workers labored day and night for nine months. windows were Carved ceilings and stained-glas- s painstakingly repaired. Artisans resculpted stone porticos and recreated gilded doorpulls and wrought iron chandeliers. Seamstresses converted velvet and M mid-Augu- , vc The intricately carved stone facade of the Hotel de San Marcos in Leon , Spam is one of the country's fittest mneunhoUis. ar g See Page H-1- 9, Col. 1 |