Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Prague

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"Augustine was a 2022 winner in T+L’s World’s Best Awards and offers a full five-star experience that is also infused with loads of character. Once a 13th-century monastery, the hotel is directly connected to the Baroque St. Thomas Church and offers tours to guests every week, including a peek into its 13th-century library. It still functions partly as a monastery today, and you may see the few monks who live here walking the grounds. There are 101 rooms and suites, most of which were formed from merging two to three former monk’s quarters, and many feature original doors with ornamental ironwork. Classic rooms start at 344 square feet and suites easily double that. No matter which you choose, rooms have contemporary Czech Cubism furnishings that were popular in Prague during the 1920s and ‘30s alongside heavy linens and velvets in papal-inspired purple, red, and orange hues, and marble mosaic bathrooms with heated floors. On-site amenities include a spa, fine dining restaurant, a cocktail bar in the monastery's barrel-vaulted hall, and a brewery serving beer from a secret recipe that originated from the Augustinian monks." - Travel + Leisure Editors

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"Prague is bulging with history walks past baroque this and alchemical that, but here’s a hotel with its own guided tour. With the Augustine formed from seven terra-cotta-roofed buildings of the (still active) St. Thomas’s monastery, dating back to the 13th century, the walk takes you from the recently woven tapestry depicting the celestial zodiac above reception through meditative herb gardens, past beautiful stained-glass windows and along cloisters and into the church itself. It’s a baroque masterpiece, gleaming white and gold, with two Rubens paintings above the altar and frescoes in the dome high above; in one casket recline the skeletal remains of a saint wearing a metal mask. And then, all of a sudden, a door opens into the monks’ refectory and there’s a huge portrait of Debbie Harry looking down above a cocktail bar. Religious and pop iconography side by side. Do the four remaining brothers here chant ‘Heart of Glass’ in an idle moment? I didn’t dare ask. The Blondie moment came from designer Olga Polizzi, who added color and Cubist pizzazz when the Augustine opened in 2009. Tucked away behind walls near the river in the Mala Strana district, this exists in a world of its own. There’s a pretty courtyard garden with roses entwined around arches, a vaulted basement pub serving St. Thomas’s beer—once brewed by the monks—and a Turkish hammam. The restaurant, which spills out into the main sundial garden, is newly headed up by Jan Horak (formerly of Copenhagen’s Jordnaer and CottoCrudo across the river), who has tattoos of mushrooms and turnips on his arms and creates seafood- and vegetable-forward menus. Ask to see the Tower Suite, a former observatory with a spiral staircase up two floors to glorious views; most of the other rooms were made from two or three monks’ cells, furnished with 1920s illustrations and artworks, the occasional angular piece of furniture, marble bathrooms the color of mottled parchment, and a deep sense of calm. Lying in my bed after a night at the Ungelt Jazz Club, I fell asleep to the ASMR sound of trams trundling far below. A hotel that feels like a condensed version of Prague." - Rick Jordan

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"Located in Central Europe, the Czech Republic has the highest concentration of castles in the continent, some dating back to the 1300s, making it a paradise for architecture and history enthusiasts. Plus, Prague, the Czech capital, is home to the world’s largest castle complex."

"Gothic and Renaissance architecture meets modern design at Augustine, where 13th-century details like vaulted ceilings and 19th-century frescoes share space with Czech Cubist furniture and pottery. The seven buildings that make up the property—parts of which date back to 1284—formed some of the St. Thomas Church and Monastery, so you may even bed down in a room where Augustinian monks once slept (in fact, monks still have quarters here). The 101 rooms are a chic combination of old world charm and modern luxury, with generously sized marble bathrooms with heated floors and rain showers; suites have magnificent views of Prague Castle or an interior garden. The Refectory bar serves wickedly good “Archangel” cocktails, named for the subjects of the room’s Baroque frescoes, as well as St. Thomas Beer, brewed from the monk’s original 1352 recipe, but don’t let the spirits get to your head. There’salso a highly regarded fine-dining restaurant as well as a spa."