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Monasteries make perfect hotels. They\u2019re beautiful, godly places. It\u2019s in their old bones to lodge, to feed, to host. They\u2019re ancient, generally, and if they\u2019re still standing \u2014 there\u2019s a reason. They\u2019re sturdy and well-built. Well-located. Massive and useful. So the fact that Kruisherenhotel<\/a> in Maastricht, Netherlands was once a monastery, the Kruisherenklooster<\/em>, where its friars bound books and cared for the sick and poor, is not what makes it so interesting to us as a hotel. And it\u2019s not that it once served as a barracks for the French during their revolution in 1794, or even that it eventually fell into the hands of the Nazis, then the Americans, then back to the Dutch in the years of World War Two.<\/p>\n What makes Kruisherenhotel so interesting to us is that it is, frankly, a little bit sacrilegious. A little profane<\/em>, if you will. Ignore the exterior, the picture of a 15th-century Gothic monastery, and walk through the blinding copper tunnel that serves as an entrance. The site that greets you within the monastery\u2019s ancient church-turned-lobby is less an abbey for monks than it is the the headquarters of a design-obsessed alien race, come to Earth to merge their culture with a worthy human totem. They even laid an egg \u2014 but we\u2019re getting ahead of ourselves.<\/p>\n Critics have weighed in on the Kruisherenhotel<\/a>, pegging the \u201cintervention\u201d in the building as \u201cshocking. Colours, materials and forms talk about comfort, pleasure, and luxury,\u201d wrote<\/a> the editors of one European architectural association, \u201cin some kind of hedonistic discourse, obviously opposing the concept of religious space, penitence and prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n As they say, obviously<\/em>. Let\u2019s start with the copper tunnel, one of Kruisheren’s most recognizable features. The work of German designer Ingo Maurer during the turn-of-the-millennium renovations that made this place a hotel, it joins furniture and lighting designs by Le Corbusier, Philippe Starck, and Marc Newson in a celebration of modern and contemporary visual design. Swooping light fixtures, a glass-walled elevator, and buzzy artworks sit next to stained glass windows. The aforementioned egg \u2014 a blanche white oval that serves as a peculiar office space inside the old church slash hotel lobby \u2014 makes the intentions of Kruisherenhotel perfectly clear. The old and the new here combine to eye-popping effect.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t like the futuristic commingling of the sacred and the secular, the Dutch government has anticipated your objections. The Oostwegel family \u2014 already the shepherd of several historic buildings around the country into modern functionality \u2014 purchased the monastery in 2000. But the purchase came with a stipulation. Every new addition to the historic monastery and church would have to be completely reversible. And not just reversible \u2014 but reversible in 90 days. It\u2019s obvious they could remove certain fixtures easily, but it\u2019s not just the free-floating office spaces that would need erasing. If the order came down, a representative of the Oostwegel Collection tells Tablet, \u201cwe would then have to delivery the monastery to the state as it was when we moved into it.\u201d Since that first day some two decades ago, complete walls, ceilings, and floors have been added to previously open spaces in the monastery to create extra guest rooms. All of it would have to go.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a scenario that\u2019s difficult to envision, but one that\u2019s informed nearly every aspect of the hotel\u2019s design. Kruisherenhotel<\/a> adheres closely to a principle they call box-in-box, which means as little as possible is affixed directly to the old walls. Instead, complete structures are built within the existing structure, and, for the most part, you can remove any one piece without affecting the foundation.<\/p>\n What could trigger the 90-day sprint, we have no idea \u2014 a decree from God, perhaps, to put the aliens in their place. But that was the rule. Given 90 days of notice, Kruisherenhotel must be able to revert back to its original state.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that never happens,\u201d general manager Floris Kemper tells Tablet, envisioning a mad scramble to scale back the award-winning design and evacuate art pieces, to rip to shreds the mezzanines and the glass elevator that allows guests to marvel at parts of the structure from vantages they\u2019d never enjoy otherwise. \u201cBut there is a plan for it.\u201d<\/p>\n 15 years after the grand opening in 2005, 60 \u201chandsome modern hotel rooms,\u201d as we wrote in the Kruisherenhotel\u2019s initial introduction to Tablet, \u201care anything but ascetic.\u201d Most sit in the former monastery, while a handful occupy another historic building \u2014 the Gatekeeper\u2019s House \u2014 and one brand new building set in the monastery gardens, the contemporary Casa Nova.<\/p>\n Throughout all three, the experience is defined by a minimalist aesthetic \u2014 heavy on white space, frosted glass, and hardwoods \u2014 interrupted by the bold artwork splashed across the walls. Just another contrast in a hotel defined by them. In the bridal suite, heavenly cherubs float on the wall next to a Nespresso machine. In the Kruisherensuite, the image of a royal procession curves around the wall towards the whirlpool. In the luxury suites, king-sized beds sit snugly, custom-crafted for the monastery spaces.<\/p>\n Take the glass elevator from the monastery down to the church and you\u2019ll find not just the lobby but Kruisheren Restaurant, a glorious corner of the building serving steak tartar under the original frescoes and towering leaded-glass windows. Go to the wine bar and you\u2019re in the old choir, where new red upholstery sizzles against original pale walls.<\/p>\n Is all of this really sacrilegious? In the hotel\u2019s defense, the Kruisherenklooster<\/em> is not the Vatican. The monastery has a long history, but it\u2019s one that ceased being religious some 200 years ago. The French capture in 1794 meant the end of its original mission, and the years since have been a march from one secular purpose to another, with only a brief return to the sacred in the 1980s when a local parish needed a temporary space. The city managed the monastery complex since around the start of that decade, and besides storage and rehearsal for the opera, they mostly left it alone. At one point, squatters took up residence.<\/p>\n As Kemper would tell you, the monastery\u2019s use today as a hotel \u2014 while certainly not the most effective for resuming religious function \u2014 does ensure a respect for the building itself, and for the treasures that lie within. No, a hotel isn\u2019t sacrosanct. But it has preserved the history of the place as well as anyone since the departure of the original stewards. Restoration work has been extensive, and murals and frescoes remain safe within its confines, appreciated by guests not unlike they would have had the city turned this place into a museum.<\/p>\n As Kemper told Tablet, \u201cIt all comes down to idea of respect. Do we have respect for the history and the place and why it has been built?\u201d Look at the way they\u2019ve handled the design. The way they\u2019ve chronicled its history. Obviously, they do. And besides, adds Kemper, \u201cIt\u2019s not a nightclub, it\u2019s a hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think we build on the idea of taking care of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Which brings us, as just about everything has over the better part of the last year, to the pandemic. \u201cIt\u2019s been an interesting year,\u201d states Kemper, \u201clet me say that.\u201d Although Maastricht might not be on the itinerary of the average first-time visitor to the Netherlands, it’s no sleepy countryside town. Maastricht, set in the southeast of the country, is among the Netherlands’ most international cities, owing to its location on the border with Belgium, its proximity to Germany, and the draw of Maastricht University.<\/p>\n This is a city for \u201cenjoying the nice things in life,\u201d says Kemper. Eating, shopping, and going out in a city full of ancient architecture and vibrant markets has always been the appeal of this place (there are 19 Michelin-rated restaurants in Maastricht \u2014 Kruisheren Restaurant among them). But over the past months, and for the by-now-familiar reasons of the pandemic, the personable staff at Kruisherenhotel have made an effort to point to their guests towards the surrounding nature in the countryside. And for the first time, they see them enjoying a different part of their corner of the world. \u201cBecause they went out and found it,\u201d beams Kemper. \u201cThey never knew.\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019ll certainly enjoy the nice things in life when you finally make it to Maastricht. But no matter when you arrive, the staff of Kruisherenhotel will now and forever have a bevy of natural options, all the treasures of the hilly, green region of South Limburg, in their arsenal. In fact, Kemper laughs, before the crises they wouldn\u2019t have thought to put a Dutch wine on their menu. Now that exploring the wineries \u2014 along with walking and cycling the countryside \u2014 has become such a popular activity, you can expect to see more than one.<\/p>\n Book Kruisherenhotel Maastricht<\/a> on Tablet Hotels.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Kruisherenhotel](\"https:\/\/cdn1.tablethotels.com\/media\/ecs\/global\/magazine\/story-images\/20201212\/2.jpg\")
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