Spains Ageless Beauties
By: Sarah Wildman for the New York Times
NESTLED on cushioned, mahogany wicker armchairs spread across a terra-cotta floor, chatty knots of Spaniards nurse drinks
and rest legs, weary after a day of climbing hills in the medieval town of Cuenca, displayed before them outside large
arched windows.
The bar they are in has walls that are almost as old as the town and hung with antique pen-and-ink drawings of Spanish
soldiers and admirals in brushed-metal frames, stern images softened by the crisp, cheerful yellowy green of the walls
and silk curtains, a combination that faintly recalls a colonial tropical destination or the summer Pottery Barn catalog.
A scrim of cigarette smoke curls gently above the tables and disappears into the triple-height ceiling, where a restored
painting of a supplicant Jesus in monk’s robes is joined by other paintings of saints, all looking heavenward from their
posts within these 16th-century friezes.
Below these prayerful images, Santos Martin sips resolí, the local liquor, in a brandy glass. His companion, Isabel
García Álvarez, slides a bright gold card across the table. The phrase “Amigos de Paradores” rolls across the top in
American Express-style glittering gold.
"I have been to nearly all of them," Ms. García, a Madrileño, says proudly about Spain’s paradores. The card,
she explains, is for a rewards system connected to these historic hotels spread from the Portuguese border to the
Mediterranean. She ticks off her favorites: "León. Sos del Rey Católico. Plasencia."
Out the window, just beyond Ms. García’s fuchsia blazer, the dramatic cliffs of Cuenca glow with evening light of late
June; the sheer drop into the Huécar River Valley provokes sharp intakes of breath.
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"You pay for quality and location," she continues, and Mr. Martin nods, swirling the ice in his glass. A burst of
laughter ripples from a clutch of physicians finishing an early cocktail.
Centuries ago, this was a room for penitence and prayer. Now this bar is a gathering point for guests of the
Parador de Cuenca, a station for pilgrims of tourism.
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After the first parador opened near Ávila in the Gredos Mountains in 1928, dozens of convents, monasteries and
castles were reclaimed and converted into dramatic lodging by the Spanish government with Hilton-like zeal. King
Alfonso XIII knew there was romance and mystery in the walls of these 500 to 1,000
year-old buildings that dot the Spanish countryside. The king hoped to bring Spaniards from one part of the country to another, preserve the
aging structures and knit together disparate regions in a common historical journey.
The royal hotelier system was eventually discovered by foreign tourists.
Paradores became a way to see authentic Spain, a
way to leave the sterility of big-name hotels and cities to literally sleep and dine with history. Who, after all,
could resist the idea of staying in a castle? Or eating in a room that has seen wine spilled since the time of the
Inquisition?
Thus the dormant 16th-century Dominican Monastery de San Pablo became the Parador de Cuenca. The city lies at the heart of
Castile-La Mancha, the sparsely populated central section of the country. The romance here is literary: this is the Spain
of Cervantes and "Don Quixote."
Filling rooms at
Paradores like this one was once effortless. But despite the delight travelers have long felt in staying
in these storied spots, in the last decade the paradores started facing competition. From Barcelona to Bilbao, ever
sleeker hotels began going up, with older ones being rehabbed, using well-known architects and artists.
Even Madrid — slow to join the hotel boom of the 1990’s — has had an explosion of boutique hotels with designer pedigrees
in the last five years. Most notably, the Puerta América, which opened last summer on the edge of the city, showily
bequeathed a floor each to 12 architects from around the world to design as they wished.
Recognizing these changes, in 2001 the Spanish government announced a plan to overhaul the paradores, renovating and
updating them to meet the four- and five-star standard for the 21st century. They are pinning 500 million euros on the
hopes that though tourists have come to expect Wi-Fi, mod furniture and plasma TV’s, they still maintain a yen for history
and authenticity.
By 2010, all of the more than 90
Paradores in Spain’s network, which is
growing, will have been refreshed and modernized, making them as enticing as any city hotel.
At Cuenca, a renovation began early in 2004, and has been completed save a
temporarily closed gym and sauna.
The tourists here, like those at the majority of paradores, are mostly Spaniards, many from Madrid, with a smattering of
other Europeans. They have come here as much to see the town as the parador itself.
"Toledo was sold out," says Pia Lädrach, 38, from Bern, Switzerland, referring to
Toledo’s also recently
restored, well-regarded parador. Nearby — and even more lavishly renovated — is the 15-room castle of
Alarcón, but that
was booked as well. So, she adds, "We looked and saw here was this nice place with an old city," not well known
like Toledo, but still historic.
Rodolfo Lazarich Gener, an economist from Cádiz, agrees. "You come here to live like people did in the Middle Ages,
but in a four- or five-star hotel," he says.
(Cuenca images by Matias Costa for the New York Times)
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