NH Collection Amistad Córdoba

The historic center of Córdoba is no place for an ordinary luxury hotel. Hidden behind the stone walls of a pair of 18th-century palaces in the old Jewish quarter is the NH Collection Amistad Córdoba, an outpost of the Spanish-based, design-savvy luxury brand. This is a group that’s clever about integrating their hotels into their locations, perhaps nowhere more successfully than here: these Moorish-style inside-out courtyard palaces are perfectly suited to the privacy and tranquility required of high-end hospitality.

Its rooms start out spacious enough, and are decorated in a contemporary style that contrasts richly with their surroundings — some look inward, onto a myriad of semi-public courtyard spaces, while others look out over the wall of the old Jewish quarter, and some even catch a glimpse of the tower atop the city’s famous mosque-cathedral. Some of them retain original architectural elements, such as weathered stone walls, but all are modern in construction and comforts.

The same courtyards are put to good use by the hotel’s restaurant and bar, from the breakfast buffet on through to after-dinner drinks. And the location immerses guests in a wealth of history and culture, from the mosque-cathedral with its forest of columns and arches to the Roman bridge just beyond.