9 remarkable Israeli hotels set in ancient buildin

Abigail Klein Leichman

In Israel you don’t have to limit your history lesson to tourist sites. You can book a stay in a renovated ancient building.

Alegra Boutique Hotel in Ein Karem, Jerusalem. Photo: courtesy

Israel is a land with thousands of years of history and myriad archeological sites to explore. Visitors can even find overnight accommodations boasting a long backstory.

It’s not hard to find Israeli hotels or inns housed in renovated 19th century Ottoman buildings, such as the Austrian Hospice (1858) in Jerusalem; the Scots Hotel (1894) in Tiberias or 1885 Suites in Rosh Pina, named for the year it was built.

But there are also older buildings now being used for hotels. Here, ISRAEL21c focuses on hotels built in – or on the ruins of – buildings originally constructed in the 18th century and earlier. If you know of others you want to share with readers, please add them in our comments section.

Hotel Alegra in Jerusalem’s Ein Karem neighborhood encompasses an authentic Crusader inn from about 1,000 years ago as well as a 200-year-old former synagogue across the lane.

Hebrew University political science professor Moshe Amirav, owner of the older building (which used to be a separate hotel but is now leased to Alegra) tells ISRAEL21c that to the best of his knowledge, the Crusader inn is the oldest house in Ein Karem and the oldest hotel still standing in Israel.

The Efendi Hotel in Acre (Akko) opened in 2012 combining two 19th century Ottoman-era mansions reconstructed under the supervision of the Antiquities Authority. Artisans were flown in from Italy to restore the hand-painted ceilings and a fresco of the city of Istanbul created in 1878 in honor of the new Orient Express train station.

The hotel features a painstakingly restored 400-year-old Turkish bath found on site, and a wine bar in a renovated wine cellar dating from the Crusader era 900 years ago.

Efendi Hotel in Acre. Photo: courtesy

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