Seven Art Hotels Worldwide Offer Unique Stays from Prisons to Palaces

Beaux Arts Magazine has curated seven art-focused hotels worldwide, each offering a unique experience blending heritage, art, and luxury. In Nice, the Couvent, a former convent built from the 16th century, opened as a Marriott hotel in summer 2024 and was ranked among The World's 50 Best Hotels in 2025. It features 88 rooms, a 10,000-square-meter garden, a resident herbalist, a lap pool, and Roman baths. Near Fontainebleau, Pierres d'Histoire has added rooms in the stables of the Château de Fleury, a Louis XIII gem at the edge of the forest, offering access to Barbizon and Château de Courances. In Amboise, the Relais d'Amboise, a five-star hotel by Marugal (part of Art Nova, Beaux Arts' holding), opens this summer along the Loire, with five troglodyte caves converted into a spa and artworks by Bernar Venet. In Sils-Maria, Switzerland, gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth have transformed the Chesa Marchetta inn into a 13-room art haven featuring works by Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois, Philip Guston, and Gerhard Richter. In Venice, a 15th-century palazzo now houses an Orient-Express hotel with 47 rooms blending Venetian style, Art Deco, and train cabin nods, opened in March. In Nara, Japan, the Hoshinoya Nara Prison hotel opens June 25, converting a 1908 radial-plan prison into 48 suites with a gastronomic restaurant. Near Marrakech, the Kasbah d'If, a former fortress turned five-star hotel, offers yoga with Atlas views, a desert-facing pool, and Berber village treks.