Moni Emvasis Luxury Suites has three suites and nothing beyond them. Its address is fifty metres inside the castle gate, Lower Town, Monemvasia, on the eastern coast of Laconia, inside the Byzantine castle citadel. Three restored stately homes were turned into one small hotel, and three grades are the whole inventory: Junior Suite, Deluxe Suite, Moni Emvasis Suite.
The fabric is the citadel’s own. Every suite is built of stone, marble and wooden beams, and the furnishing sets Italian design pieces and antiques against the medieval masonry.
One road crosses the sea bridge from the mainland onto the rock, and a heavy iron-clad gateway lets you into the town from it. The name records that geometry: ‘moni emvasi’, one entrance, is probably where Monemvasia got its name. The Lower City is walled on three sides, with a gate to the east and a gate to the west. All of Old Monemvasia, the bridge and the rock together, is a listed archaeological site. The town was first inhabited in 588 AD by people of Spartan and Laconian origin fleeing invaders, and it reached its golden age as a commercial gateway to Europe in the 14th century.
The three suites
The Deluxe Suite runs across two distinct areas, a bedroom and a lounge, finished in white marble. It has a fireplace for winter and a private balcony with unimpeded views of the Myrtoan Sea. Pieces by Philippe Starck and Poltrona Frau sit alongside traditional craftsmanship, and the bed is a queen, with mattress and pillows by Hypnos.
The Moni Emvasis Suite puts its bed in a stone vaulted room, sunlit and furnished with antiques, lit by Artemide. Its separate lounge has a marble fireplace and Poltrona Frau seating. The suite takes two guests, with a third possible, on a king bed by Hypnos.
The Junior Suite is one bedroom, furnished with Italian design pieces and set in the same castle fabric.
The Deluxe Suite and the Moni Emvasis Suite each have a marble bathroom with a Jacuzzi massage bath and an Amazonian shower unit with colour therapy, and the toiletries are Molton Brown. Each has an antique desk, a private balcony and a sea view, and the house keeps a pillow menu.
Every suite has satellite television, a safe, bathrobes and slippers and free Wi-Fi throughout the property, and a welcome drink comes with the stay.
The table
The house runs its own restaurant and bar in the citadel, the Chrisovoulo Restaurant & Bar. Chrisovoulo was the gold-sealed writ of the Byzantine emperors, and the room it names has tall buttressed ceilings over floors of marble and stone, in the manner of a medieval Venetian building. The kitchen works from Monemvasian and wider Greek tradition. The wine list is led by Malvasia, the native Monemvasian wine whose history on the rock goes back to Venetian rule, and its sweet red is made to a centuries-old recipe that is still sought after. Breakfast is served between 9am and 11am, on the sea view terrace when the weather allows, and guests who want it earlier are asked to say so in advance.
The year and the ground
The house is open to guests through the year. The restaurant closes for part of the winter, so ask about it before you book a winter stay. Check-in is from 3pm and check-out at 11am. Beyond the table the house keeps a short list of services: airport and port transfers, in-suite dining, a wine cellar and a cigar selection, daily housekeeping and a doctor or a bell-boy on request. There is no wheelchair access to the citadel.
Who is this for
This suits two travellers who want to sleep inside the walls and spend the evening on foot. Beyond the gate are cobbled lanes, the ruins of Turkish baths, cisterns and Byzantine churches, and bastion walls that run down to the water. From the main square a winding route climbs to the Upper Town, the old neighbourhood of the nobility, where the air carries sweet wild flowers.
