PRAGUE,CZECH REPUBLIC
For many centuries,the serene courtyard garden at the heart of Prague's Mandarin Oriental would be where monks took time out from their chores to contemplate the world. Nowadays,the relaxation is done inside the Renaissance chapel,which has been spectacularly (and expensively) converted into a spa. Guest rooms fill out the rest of the monastery,which hides in the maze of the Mala Strana district. Fourteenth century vaulted ceilings have been maintained among cloud-like beds and sprawling marble bathrooms with their own TV screens. Rooms from €316.
Seemandarinoriental.com/prague.
MALMAISON
GLASGOW,SCOTLAND
The Malmaison mini-chain has form for startling conversions - elsewhere in Britain it has turned a Royal Mail sorting office and a prison into hotels. The Glasgow effort is equally odd - it was once an Episcopal church. The stern-looking entrance soon gives way to decor calculatingly aimed at sinful dirty weekenders. The mood-lit bar,studded leather chairs and roll-top baths are suited to sacrilegious stays - although opt for the rooms in the original church rather than the extension for the full slap-your-Sunday-school-teacher-in-the-face experience. Rooms from £99 ($180).
SeeMalmaison.com/locations/Glasgow.
THE KIRCHE AT CHARLES MELTON
BAROSSA VALLEY,SOUTH AUSTRALIA
When one of Australia's top winemakers,Charles Melton,bought his property,there was the small matter of what to do with the church by the roadside. The eventual decision was to convert it into luxury accommodation surrounded by vineyards. What was once the vestry now contains a giant,fully equipped kitchen,while the arched windows peer in over leather couches and a wood-burning fireplace. A second bedroom hides upstairs beneath the soaring roof and there's underfloor heating in the bathroom. Rental of the church starts from $495.
Seethekirche.com.au.
HOTEL ELZENVELD
ANTWERP,BELGIUM
A hodge-podge combination of a red-brick church,a vicarage and a former convent,the Elzenveld was slowly put together between the 13th and 17th centuries. It is now largely used for conference groups rather than keeping nuns off the street but it still manages to keep the feel of a sabbatical retreat. The hidden garden surrounded by cloisters now has a series of weird statues to go alongside the basic benches,the cloakroom in the entrance hall has stone in memorium slabs behind the coat rails and the floorboards are endearingly creaky. Rooms from €112 ($163).
SeeElzenveld.be.