If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR449.18), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Castle Elvira: the manor, the myth, the legend… Topped with crenellated turrets and surrounded by enchanted forest (and groves), this storybook 20th-century Puglian stay is rooted in tragic origins (as its folklore goes), but steered towards a bright future by Renaissance creative Harvey B-Brown and his partner. The decor certainly isn’t retiring – a mix of restored frescoes and floral-motif floor tiles, statement-yelling pieces (tufted velvet or circular bedframes, stone bath tubs, and Brown’s own artistic embellishments) – and nor are guests, who might be disco-ing in the pool, crafting their own portraiture, joining singalongs around the grand piano or calling on the mobile cocktail cart. Elvira is a beauty that only sleeps when she really needs to.
Nine set throughout the castle, cottage next door, and an 18th-century tower on the estate.
Check–Out
11am, but flexible, subject to availability and a charge (€100 till 2pm, €250 till 7pm). Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £422.97 (€494), including tax at 10 per cent.
More details
Rates include breakfast and a welcome drink on arrival.
Also
So, you can’t smuggle some of the museum-piece vintage finds home from the hotel, but you can legitimately buy authentic artworks, artisan homewares, clothing and handicrafts. Or just tell staff your tastes and they’ll curate a selection of goods for you to browse.
Hotel closed
The castle is open year-round, but can only be booked exclusively from November to April.
At the hotel
Alfresco lounging terraces; solarium; 37 acres of parkland, groves and gardens; rooftop bar; sitting room with fireplaces and a 1902 Beckstein grand piano; dining room; boutique; free-to-borrow rickshaw bikes; hair-straighteners, plug adaptors and wireless charging pads to borrow; charged laundry service; concierge; free WiFi. If buying out the whole estate in winter, there's a kitchen guests can use. In rooms: rooms in the castle have underfloor heating and cooling, smart TVs in each bedroom (hidden behind a vintage mirror) and Ortigia bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Don’t make us choose. Each room here feels like turning the first page on a new story – or, perhaps more fittingly, putting that first brushstroke on canvas. Stories are hidden in the remnants of frescoes spread over vaulted ceilings, flowery floor tiles laid in the 20th century, and – more recently – the works co-owner, artist and filmmaker Harvey B-Brown has hung on the walls (including lavishly collaged famous faces, such as Cher and Bryan Ferry). We like the blue-leather bed and Matisse-esque portraiture in the King Suite, and the tufted velvets in the Prince and Princess suites; for privacy, vintage cinema signage and curio cabinet, book the Cottage. If you’re staying in the – slightly – more traditional 18th-century Tower Elvira (once a look-out post), the Tower Top Executive Suite has Rapunzel-esque romance (except you won’t try to leave), with its bath-tub-topped roof terrace, round bed and cathedral-esque ceilings. Whichever you choose, luxury is considered: beds have aloe vera-infused mattresses and Conran linens, TVs are cleverly concealed in mirrors, and bathrooms are stocked with Ortigia products. And, in low season, having the castle to yourself is a rare treasure.
Poolside
You have two pools to play in here, and we mean play – they’re heated year-round, and have Sonance sound-systems for submerged jams (plus ports if you want to plug in your own playlist) and staff to bring cocktails on demand. In the solarium pool, next to the main pool, there’s a Jacuzzi that can potentially fit all the castle’s guests (if you get to know each other that well), and wet discos and candlelit dinners are held in here – we mean in: the table and chairs are partially underwater. And those staying in Tower Elvira and the masseria will have their own pool to share too.
Spa
There’s no spa, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get a royal pampering. Just say the word and therapists and beauticians can be called on for a range of massages (shiatsu, hot-stone, Thai…), facials and body scrubs, or mani-pedis.
Packing tips
Bring all that pent-up emotion to channel into drawing and painting classes here, and maybe a sketchpad, too.
Also
The castle might be vintage but it has a red-glass-lined elevator (dubbed the ‘Chanel-evator’) to take you to all floors.
Pet‐friendly
Noble steeds should be stabled at home, but doggos can stay for free: you’ll need to request approval from the hotel before your stay. See more pet-friendly hotels in Puglia.
Children
Castle Elvira might look like something from a fairytale, but it’s more of a bodice-ripper. Children aged four to 12 can stay, but on request only, and they’ll enjoy the pizza nights, art classes and lively pools.
Sustainability efforts
Built in the early 20th-century, then abandoned for around a century, Elvira’s found a great ‘glam team’ in Brit owners Steve Riseley and artist Harvey B-Brown. They’ve done their darnedest to give her a face lift and rescue any original features (retouching frescoes and restoring floor tiles), using locally sourced materials; and in the grounds, they’ve worked to revive the citrus orchard, and have spent a fortune rescuing the olive trees from blight. Solar panels provide power, underfloor heating and cooling systems control the climate in greener style, and an air-renovation system keeps things fresh. Plus local producers are preferred where possible, plastics have been reduced, and bathrooms are stocked with all-natural Ortigia products.
The roof terrace might be the best in Puglia; heat haze gives an even more magical quality to the 360-degree greenery. And, it’s hard to beat turrets, but it’s rare that we get to dine in the pool.
Dress Code
Damsels, in swish dresses; knights, in shining Armani.
Hotel restaurant
Is cucina povera still povera when it’s served in a castle? Not that it’s really considered poor man’s food anymore, but chef Fabiana (a native Salentini) gives it even more of a step up the ladder, using fresh herbs, citrus fruits, pomegranates and olives from the gardens, and putting her own spin on the classics. Expect beef strips in a spicy pepper sauce, pliant meatballs, comforting potato and onion tart, goat's cheese with a negroamaro rind and homemade apricot jam, and orecchiette in meaty ragus. On Tuesday and Friday evenings, the red-and-white-check tablecloths are spread and the wood-burning oven fired up for pizza nights with all-you-can-eat antipasti and desserts no less.
Hotel bar
Warning: it’ll be hard to settle back into your local after you’ve experienced drinks on Castle Elvira’s roof terrace. Tables are set amid the four crenellated turrets and all around Puglia gives Tuscany a run for its money, offering dreamy rural vistas with a few more palm trees. Here you’ll try local wines, sip prosecco and see what the mixologist’s shaking, as a Sonance system plays background music (or a string quartet if you want something fancier). What could possibly be lovelier? Well, get this – the drinks will come to you. When happy hour hits (there’s no specific time, just whenever you’re thirsty), just call the staff and they’ll load up the vintage, three-wheeled Piaggio Ape-turned-mobile bar with spirits, fixings and mini umbrellas, then pootle over to wherever you are. Bellissima.
Last orders
Breakfast runs from 8am till 10am, lunch from noon till 3pm, and dinner from 8pm till 10.30pm.
Room service
In-room dining is available at certain times (on and off from 8am to 10.30pm) – it usually starts after breakfast, but if you really want that lie-in, the team is very accommodating.
Go deep into the Puglian hinterland, where the olive groves thicken and the roads give way to green, and you’ll find the fairytale that is Castle Elvira (actually just a 20-minute drive from Baroque beauty Lecce).
Planes
Salento (AKA Brindisi) Airport, well connected across Europe, is the closest, around a 40-minute drive away from the hotel; transfers can be arranged from €70 one-way, for up to eight guests. Or you could fly into equally route-blessed Bari Airport, a two-hour drive away; transfers from here are from €195 each way.
Trains
Squinzano train station is just a 10-minute drive away from the castle. It’s a stop on the east-coast route that runs tip-to-heel of the boot from Milan in the north to Lecce in the south, with stops at Bari and Brindisi.
Automobiles
Sì, you’ll need a car – this is the territory of snapshot-ready satellite villages; that little trattoria you stumbled upon when you took a wrong turn, and will never forget; vineyards and groves and patchwork farmland that repeat like a cartoon backdrop… Do it right. The hotel has a free car park onsite (and valet parking on request).
Other
Bari’s port is extremely accommodating, with ferry dockings from Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, the Ionian Islands and Kefalonia.
Worth getting out of bed for
Castle Elvira’s crenellated turrets emerge from bursts of palms, cypress and the other enthusiastic verdure coating her country estate, interrupted only by a snaking driveway leading to St Elia Ridge, known locally as the ‘vale of health’ thanks to its fresh air. You can’t help to feel a little more pep in your step here, and you can use this to jog past olive trees and ancient smallholdings, wander the wild Italian woodlands, or borrow a rickshaw pedal-bike for zipping through citrus groves – chef Fabiana can pack you a delicious picnic of Pugliese dishes and cakes on request (available from noon to 4pm; must be booked in the morning). And when you’re not in awe of Italy’s skill for sculpting a landscape, become best friends with general manager Giacomo (who’s multilingual and can play the piano), who can bring your stay to life, with pasta-making classes (where you’ll roll, shape and learn your flours); baking lessons; wine-tasting masterclasses, where you can divine your primitivo from your verdeca; and private cinema screenings, with classic and blockbuster movies, cartoons and TV shows, plus popcorn and snacks. Co-owner Harvey B-Brown is a hands-on host, too – the award-winning artist and filmmaker holds drawing, painting and life-drawing classes. And, for those serious about mining their creative talent, there’s the Adored & Adorned portrait-making experience, where you’ll work alongside B-Brown and his collaborator David Scheinmann, taking photographs and collecting mementoes which will then be embellished with paints, ink, digital finishes and collage to make spectacular self portraiture. For the less hands-on, simply admire works by B-Brown and Scheinmann, Adolfo Arenas Alonso and Michal Cole placed throughout the property. You could also tinkle the ivories on the sitting room’s 1902 Beckstein grand piano – guests have been known to gather round it of an eve – book a massage or join in whatever pool party is taking place; but Lecce, with its Baroque basilicas, cathedrals and churches makes an easy day-trip at just a 20-minute drive away.
Local restaurants
The story goes: once upon a time, there was a girl called Elvira, who loved a castle near her home. As a 17th-birthday gift, her parents built her a replica, and so overjoyed was Elvira that she went gathering mushrooms for a celebratory feast. But she mistook poisonous mushrooms for porcini; and so, on finding her dead, her parents abandoned the castle. Not the cheeriest tale, but a warning not to eat the wrong thing. There are few mushroom mishaps in Lecce where there are spots such as La Bocca Bistro, with its grilled octopus in peach and green tea gazpacho; ‘tomato soup’-stuffed ravioli with blue cheese and truffled caviar; and swordfish, foie gras and almonds with lemon and sage ice-cream. Or put your trust in Alex Restaurant, for they serve aubergine gratin with pistachio and sweet and sour cherry tomatoes; anchovies with a drizzle and crumble of black vinegar and gorgonzola; and Gallipoli-prawn ceviche with leche de tigre. Inventive dishes such as oysters in capocollo butter and tuna tartare with celery mousse show how fresh the fish is at Il Vico del Gusto, and Tabisca lays out all the region’s best bits for you: crostini with truffle butter or anchovies and ricotta; platters of saffron-infused goat cheese, wild-boar salami, and honey-cooked bacon; carpaccios; and steaks – plus vegan and vegetarian picks.
Local cafés
Sweet tooths, Lecce will ruin you. Whether it’s by ice-cream at gelateria Settimo Cielo (try the candied-fruit-laden tutti-frutti), or pralines and panettone at Natale Pasticceria.
Local bars
In Lecce, Gusto Liberrima legitimates your wine-drinking habits by making it all the more cultured – it’s a bookstore, too. Discover unique regional bottles and keep an eye out for talks and events that also make getting a bit tipsy seem all the more erudite. For chic cocktails in vintage surrounds, try Prohibition where classics (negronis, Americanos, martinis) might be spritzed with secret ingredients or set alight with a brûlée torch.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this regal retreat near historic Lecce and unpacked the artwork they poured their heart and soul into and quirky local homewares from the hotel shop, a full account of their true-ove’s-bliss break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Castle Elvira in Puglia…
Bananarama might not be the first thing you think of when you look at early-20th-century Puglian stay Castle Elvira, which has more in common with a Disney tale, with its crenellated turrets, magical gardens and groves. But, the 1980s pop trio filmed their latest video Masquerade here. And, they’re not the only creatives who have fallen for its enchantment – after all, it’s co-owned by master-of-arts Harvey B-Brown, whose embellished portraits and bold paintings you can see hung throughout. He holds painting and drawing classes and workshops where guests dig deep to make their own masterpiece. Although the digging isn’t too strenuous when you’re ensconced in rooms that sizzle with colour and are bedecked with curios, have access to lush terraces and rickshaw bikes for pedals through orange and lemon groves, and can summon a mobile cocktail cart at the touch of a button. The fun doesn’t stop there either: guests are welcome to tinkle the ivories on the sitting room’s grand piano; the rooftop is such a dreamy apéritif spot, even Rapunzel would be reaching for a scrunchie; and the pool is the setting for wet discos, partially submerged private dinners and communal Jacuzzi sessions, whether you’ve booked the castle exclusively during the winter months or are making new friends with fellow travellers during summer. It’s a place where the beginnings and middle bits are happy and the ending unbearably sad; all in all we have to agree with one of Bananarama's earlier hits – when it comes to Elvira, she’s got it.
