Malta Inland: A 1715 Mansion in Attard Opens as Casa Bonavita
Suzanne and Christopher Sharp, founders of The Rug Company, have spent 15 years turning a crumbling Maltese palazzo into a 17-room hotel with walled gardens and a subterranean spa. Rooms from £623.
Casa Bonavita has opened in Attard, an inland Maltese village between Valletta and Mdina, in a mansion dating from around 1715 that Suzanne and Christopher Sharp bought in 2010. The founders of The Rug Company restored it over 15 years, first as a family home and then as a retirement project, with their antiques-dealer son and ceramicist daughter involved. Two adjacent buildings were absorbed into the property; false ceilings came down to expose the original arches.
There are 17 rooms, seven of them in the original house, including a former salone nobile suite with a Maltese balcony. Textiles run to suzani and Karabagh rugs, and ceramic lamps come from the family's Villa Bologna Pottery workshop nearby. Groups can take the five-bedroom Dower's House, whose rooms connect by balcony, as a villa within the hotel.
The dining room is hand-painted to recall its earlier life as a courtyard garden and, like the pergola, is open to non-residents. Below ground is a spa with two pools. There is no sea view: the coast requires a car or taxi. Rooms from £623.