Hotel Stary evokes Krakow's past amid contemporary elegance

For the uninitiated but curious traveler to Europe, the Polish city of Krakow offers a fresh take on Old World charm. Poland's past is not easily forgotten in Krakow, the country's second city and former capital. Its unique, urban character has been honed through 1,000 years of East meeting West.

Even in small ways, the city remembers. Every hour on the hour, a reminder of the 1241 invasion by Tartar raiders rings out: A trumpeter plays the hejnal, a warning tune of impending attack, from the bell tower of St. Mary's Church.

The song, however, abruptly ends mid-melody, never to finish -- a reminder, according to legend, of the Tartar arrow that pierced the medieval trumpeter's throat.

For all the focus on the past, Krakow has seen tremendous change since the fall of communism, steadily recovering from its grey, hungry days under the domination of the Soviet Union.

New stores, hotels and services have come to town. But instead of detracting from Krakow's uniqueness, they have added to it by restoring the city to its former days of glory, adding polish not seen, in most cases, since before the devastating World War II invasion by Nazi Germany in 1939.

The city's once soot-covered, dilapidated buildings have been restored to their former beauty and elegance. The new, five-star Hotel Stary, opened in June by the Likus family, owners of nearby sister properties Pod Roza and Copernicus, is no exception.

Just off the market square, this boutique hotel embodies Krakow's municipal spirit.

The spirit seems to follow you into the 42-room, 11-suite hotel; you can leave the market square but not its mystique and charm, or the weight of history.

Being sophisticated and savvy while evoking the past is not an easy balance for any hotel to strike. Many err too far to one side or the other, leaving guests alienated by cold modernity or crushed by historical kitsch.

Authentic accommodations

The difference at the Hotel Stary, Polish for "Old Hotel," is inherent in the building itself; this is no new structure made to look old, but the real thing.

One can almost imagine a monk in the next room transcribing an ancient text on parchment and vellum. The hotel lacks in every conceivable way the sterility felt in so many other establishments.

Although a luxurious property, the Hotel Stary does not embody a pristine luxury of rich chintz and soft pastels but a more determined, yet elegant, luxury of days gone by, blended with the confidence of the new, expanded European Union.

A few steps from the heart of the city's picturesque Old Town, on Szczepanska Street, the entrance to the Hotel Stary is an actual, wooden, castle-keep door.

Guests are greeted with the scent of the pungent, black, leather armchairs dotting the lobby.

Light grey marble covers the floor and some walls but is softened by fine brickwork and carved stone antiquities.

I discovered this jewel of a hotel only after bypassing it several times. I had admired the elegant lobby from the street and felt certain that such a place must be home to an enchanting bar, most likely, in true Krakow fashion, one deep in the cellar. (The city is home to legion bars and restaurants tucked away in an underground network of medieval cellars.)

While my intuition proved correct, my expectations were far surpassed.

The hotel boasts not just any bar, nor a cavernous bar, but a rooftop bar, a true gem on the hotel's sixth floor that overlooks the entire market square. 

From one of the bar's rooftop tables, guests enjoy being at the center of it all: the forest of steeples and towers that surround the hotel, the bustling crowds enjoying Krakow's increasingly lively nightlife in the central market below and the hills surrounding the city.

After my introduction to the hotel, my curiosity got the best of me: I had to experience the guest rooms. These did not disappoint, either.

Flooring and all of the furniture in the Hotel Stary's guest rooms are made of heavy, dark wood, challenging the decorator's cautionary rule of thumb against furnishing small spaces in dark colors. The hotel's rooms get away with it quite nicely.

High, arched ceilings and detailed stonework on the walls give the rooms a sense of the grandiose enhanced with fine artistry.

Balancing out these echoes of the past is generous use of contemporary, marble fixtures in the bathroom, sophisticated black and red leather chairs and modern lamps and sconces.

For the gadgetry-conscious and the "wired" traveler, the latest electronic amenities -- from large, flat-screen TVs to laptop Internet access -- are provided as a matter of course.

Home away

The rooms are also cozy and homey, particularly in the details: rich drapes and bed linens (a unique blend of caramel velvet and mossy-green shantung silk), heated bathroom floors, lush oriental rugs, the de rigueur robes and slippers and, of course, all the other bath trimmings.

Guest units at the Hotel Stary consist of five categories: eight singles, 34 doubles, four junior suites, four suites and three luxury suites.

The hotel restaurant, Trzy Rybki, or Three Fishes, is located in the lobby atrium, with a glass ceiling that gives a cloister's view of a building towering overhead. The menu, which emphasizes Polish cuisine while including a range of choices for the international traveler, is excellent and reasonably priced.

Adjacent to the atrium are two lounges and a welcoming, 30-foot-long, wood-paneled bar. One floor down, the cellar has a fitness facility with two pools, a salt cave and two types of saunas.

To complement all of this, the staff is outstanding -- friendly, responsive, knowledgeable and eager to go out of their way to help a guest.

Not just another luxury hotel, the Hotel Stary, like Krakow itself, provides a kind of inspiration. Guests leave refreshed and invigorated, with the sense of having experienced the enchantment of past without leaving the comforts of the present.

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