Hospes Palacio de los Patos

The Hotel

The Palacio de los Patos was built between 1885 and 1892 by the Granada architect Juan Monserrat Vergés as the principal Granada residence of Don Mariano Agrela, Marqués de Carrión — a wealthy Granadan industrialist who served as an early investor in the Granada-Málaga railway and the Sierra Nevada mining concessions. The palace stood as a private residence through the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the marble Patio de los Patos (the principal interior courtyard with the original duck-pond fountain that gave the property its name) is one of the most ambitious surviving 19th-c Granadan domestic architectural set-pieces. The Hospes hotel group (the small Spanish-Mexican luxury collection founded in 2003) acquired the property in 2005 and completed a comprehensive 3-year restoration, opening as Hospes Palacio de los Patos on 1 March 2008. The restoration preserved the original 1885 Patio de los Patos in entirety, the original marble staircase, and selected original frescoed ceilings; the contemporary 23-room expansion is integrated discreetly behind the historic facade.

The 42 rooms — including 8 suites — divide between Heritage rooms in the original 1885 palace (19 rooms with restored stuccoed ceilings and original parquet) and contemporary rooms in the 2008 architectural extension (23 rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the property's central garden). Standard categories at 28 sqm; the Patos Suite at 95 sqm in the original palace is the milestone unit, with the original 1885 frescoed ceiling and a private balcony overlooking the Patio. Bathrooms are travertine; bath products are Bvlgari.

The Senzone restaurant runs the principal dining programme — opened with the 2008 reopening with a contemporary Andalusian register from chef Emilio Pereyra. The Patio de los Patos handles the all-day breakfast and afternoon-tea register beneath the original 1885 marble cloister. The Bodyna Spa — the Hospes signature wellness programme — runs four treatment rooms in the restored 19th-c palace cellars with the original stone-vaulted ceilings preserved overhead, plus a 12-metre indoor heated pool. The fitness centre is on the lower-ground level; the central garden includes the property's outdoor pool — the only contemporary outdoor pool of any central Granada five-star.

The Calle Solarillo de Gracia position is the booking proposition. From the front door it is six minutes on foot to the Granada Cathedral and Royal Chapel, four minutes to the Plaza Bib-Rambla, eight minutes to the Plaza Nueva and the Calle Reyes Católicos, and 10 minutes by car or 25 minutes on foot uphill to the Alhambra. For travellers wanting the central walking-Granada five-star booking with the spa-and-pool register over the heritage-grand alternatives at Alhambra Palace and Parador, Hospes is unambiguous.

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