Casa Cartagena

Even though it is located in a national landmark palace, the Casa Cartagena is thoroughly modern and cool.

• The bar where Austin Powers would feel right at home
• The fabulous bathrooms with Bisazza tiles

Like the Hotel Monasterio, the Casa Cartagena occupies a building that has been declared a national landmark by the Peruvian government. The foundations of the glorious palace, which was once the home of Don Fernando Cartagena, were laid by the Inca, but the grand layout and proportions were adapted for a Spanish noble. Just up the street from the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art and the square where the hotels Monasterio and La Casona are, Casa Cartagena opened as Cusco’s newest luxury hotel, and one of only three with oxygen-enriched rooms, in March 2009. (The Monasterio and Casa Andina Private Collection are the others.)

Many of the palace’s antique details have been beautifully restored, such as wall frescoes, stone floors and the central courtyard (from which you can see the White Christ that towers over the city), but more than any other hotel in town, this one has embraced 20th century modern design. All of the furniture and lighting was imported from Italy. The bar has space-age bar stools as well as interior lights that change hue. Each of the sixteen suites is slightly different, but all combine a historic framework (the doors, shutters and wood floors are traditional) with ultramodern decor. Philippe Starck plastic desk chairs, original pieces from Moroso, tailored leather headboards, sleek steel and leather lounge chairs are accented by contemporary Kartell Italian lights and LCD TVs. The bathrooms, which resemble those in Italian architecture magazines, feature Bisazza tiles, are easily twice the size of most other hotel bathrooms in Cusco and have enormous tubs, separate glass-walled showers and vast sink areas.

In addition to a gym and a business center, the hotel has a three-story spa and La Chola, one of the best restaurants in town. The two largest suites are the Presidential Suite and the Royal Suite. In the Royal Suite, which is on two levels, the bathroom is divided from the master bedroom only by a hanging sculpture of white leaves like a screen, so it may not appeal to everyone.

Modernists, who will revel in the contemporary Italian design aesthetic.

Historical purists, who may feel that Austin Powers has inflicted his groovy aesthetic on this ancient structure a little too liberally.