IL CONVENTO DI SANTA MARIA DI COSTANTINOPOLI

IL CONVENTO

DI SANTA MARIA DI COSTANTINOPOLI

Buried deep in the Basso Salento region of Puglia, Il Convento di Santa Maria di Costantinopoli is just about as far south-east as you can travel in Italy. The 500-year-old former Franciscan monastery is located on the outskirts of the village of Marittima, situated along the Adriatic coastline of the Salentine peninsula, right on the tip of the heel of Italy.

Abandoned by the monks at the end of the 19th century, for the first half of the 20th century Il Convento was used as a tobacco factory, gradually decaying into a more derelict state until it fell into the ownership of a local scrap merchant who won it in a card game and used it for his livestock and old farming equipment.

It was in this wretched condition in 1997 that Alistair McAlpine, The Lord McAlpine of West Green, found it. Sensing its potential, he bought it and began the awesome task of restoring it.

To begin with work was slow, blocked by bureaucracy and interrupted due to Lord McAlpine's ill health. In 2002 he returned to Puglia, fully recovered, with his third wife, Athena McAlpine, and together they resumed and lovingly completed the restoration of the building, making it their home and a dramatic setting for their extensive cross-cultural collection of textiles, ethnography, tribal and folk art.

Not long after its restoration, the McAlpines decided to share their sanctuary with a wider circle than just friends and family and began welcoming paying guests, turning it into a very special Bed & Breakfast indeed.

Visitors from all over the world and from different walks of life have knocked on the large double doors of this rather austere and forbidding building and stepped into this unusual oasis.

Sadly, Alistair McAlpine died in January 2014. Athena continues to live at the Convento. Beautifully supported by a wonderful team of staff, they work together, looking after and curating its collections, tending the garden and welcoming and caring for the guests.

‘Originally a 15th century convent the Puglian boho bolthole has been transformed into something worldly and captivating’

CATHERINE FAIRWEATHER

COURTYARD

‘The courtyard is the heart of the matter, the key to the feeling of space’

ANTONIA WILLIAMS

‘The basis for everything here is primitive art, folk art and tribal art collected from four continents that now live in unimagined harmony at the convento’

HAMISH BOWLES VOGUE JUNE 2005

‘It’s the sort of place you would believe existed only in a novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez where dreams and reality merge’

LYDIA

‘This is a rarefied escape’

ULRICH CLEWING GERMAN VOGUE SEPTEMBER 2012

INTERIORS

‘The interiors appear as cosmopolitan as the owners’

Once settled within the Convento walls, guests can roam rooms and corridors hung with textiles and art from Japan, Korea, Africa & India; admire the paintings of Sidney Nolan and the drawings of Aboriginal artists; walk barefoot on Moroccan carpets and browse through the library containing over 14 tonnes of books; explore the gardens or simply sit on the Ethiopian benches in the courtyard filled with rare ferns, cacti and succulents, listen to music or watch the swallows swooping in and out of the arches of the cloister...

For although much of this collection has been described as museum quality, there is nothing about the Convento that suggests the roped-off, 'please do not touch' atmosphere of a museum. This unique backdrop breathes life into all these objects. The way they are arranged and used makes them more accessible and gives them fresh purpose.

JUNE 2005

‘Astonishingly these disparate elements create an arresting visual harmony’

HAMISH BOWLES VOGUE

‘If the seventeenth-century architecture testifies to Italian history, the eccentric mix of furniture, fabrics, carpets, plants, flowers and colours speaks of a very British glamour’

ROSARIA ZUCCONI ELLE DÉCOR AUGUST 2005

BEDROOMS

‘Instead of the usual en-suite, my room, which had saris over the bed and Indian art on the walls, had a bathroom with statues of Indian goddesses dancing around it’

‘Each of the bedrooms reflects the owners passions and interests. The walls and floors are covered in rugs, textiles and pictures from their extensive collections’

LEO SCHOFIELD GOURMET TRAVELLER

‘In every room there are exotic beds all with handmade mattresses and spread with the finest embroidered Italian linen sheets which are ironed twice. First in the laundry and then on the bed’

2013

‘It has eight large bedrooms with fine embroidered linen, subdued lamps and piles of well-thumbed books’

LYDIA GARD EVENING STANDARD OCTOBER 2006

‘There are eight guest rooms in this converted convent, some with beds so huge it takes three staff to make them’

‘Part of the charm is the element of pot luck that accompanies any stay here. Which of the eight rooms will you be assigned? The effervescent Mexican suite or the Cardinal room upstairs?’

HARPER’S BAZAAR

DEBBIE PAPPYN THE TELEGRAPH

‘You can relax by the pool or in one of the many secluded corners tucked away in the large garden which surrounds the Convento’

GARDENS

ALISTAIR MCALPINE

‘As rare varieties and seemingly infinite pots of lilies, succulents and cacti attest, this horticultural habit has become something of a religion’

INTERIORS

‘Hunting for plants is by far the most exciting  form of collecting I have come across in my life timeʼ

ALISTAIR MCALPINE WORLD OF INTERIORS

‘The McAlpines seriously care and share their house, collection, cooking, gardens etc... To find fault is pointless- it is incomparable’

‘The gardener has to become painter, sculptor, explorer and collector’

ALISTAIR MCALPINE WORLD OF INTERIORS FEBRUARY 2014

FOOD

‘Food at the Convento is more of a life experience, starting with the banquet that is breakfast followed by memorable lunches of Pugliese specialities set on various cactus studded terraces or vine clad courtyards’

‘The kitchen is not off limits to guests; it is the heart of the building’

LUIZA ZARGANI WWD NOVEMBER 2007

‘Guests rhapsodize about the picnics that are packed for them to take to the beach, every morsel wrapped in paper and tied with string’

SEPTEMBER 2011

‘The food is made with locally sourced produce, much of it bought from farmers of families who supply just their own tables and that of the Convento’

LEO SCHOFIELD GOURMET TRAVELLER

2013

The Convento has been successfully run as a luxurious B&B for nearly 20 years. Less of a B&B and more of a guesthouse, it has built a loyal, niche following, received wide attention in the international press and been featured in books such as Taschen's 'Great Escapes Italy', Simon Watson's 'Lives of Others', Herbert Ypma's 'New Map Italy', Frances Mayes & Ondine Cohane's 'Always Italy' and Nina Freudenberger's 'Bibliostyle' to name some of the publications.

US VOGUE September 2005

“ The aim of the Convento is to provide quality, to make the people who stay here feel better”.

“ Together they have transformed the convent's austere cloisters and interiors into a theatrical setting for their collections”.

“We can do what the guests want, but the impossible takes a little longer”.

“The McAlpines have transformed a fourteenth century convent from the ruin that they discovered a decade ago into a bed and breakfast establishment that redefines the genre”.

“The McAlpine’s bohemian chic escape in Puglia is my ultimate design fantasylush, colourful and natural ”.

“It isn’t often that titled Tories with incredibly chic young wives open bed and breakfasts…”

“If the seventeenth-century architecture testifies to Italian history, the eccentric mix of furniture, fabrics, carpets, plants, flowers and colours speaks of a very British glamour”.

“ To say that this is no ordinary B&B is an understatement”.

“ The couple have made a beautiful place that is like a cross between an ethnographic museum and a grand English country house”.

“Saying Il Convento di Santa Maria di Costantinopoli is a bed and breakfast is like saying Pavarotti can hold a tune”.

WORLD OF INTERIORS 2004 NEW YORK TIMES 2005

W MAGAZINE 2004

CONDE NAST TRAVELLER June 2005

TATLER 2006

US VOGUE June 2005 STELLA MAGAZINE 2006

ELLE DECOR ITALIA 2005

GOURMET TRAVELLER 2007

ALISTAIR MCALPINE

MARIELLA CARACCIOLO ROSARIA ZUCCONI

LISA JOHNSTON

HAMISH BOWLES

ELFREDA POWNALL

March 2010 GOURMET TRAVELLER March 2013

LOTUS Summer 2011

“Thus, a former 17th century convent in Lecce stone became the happy landing place for the McAlpines, passionate travellers, lovers of Aboriginal art and collectors of rare plants”.

“In short, Il Convento is the perfect hideaway for enjoying a stretch of calm and peaceful days”.

“The McAlpines have established what must be the most eclectic bed and breakfast on the planet, a place to relax but which could never be classified as a spa or a resort: a destination that is anything but predictable”.

“A beautiful restored convent in Salento that serves as both a home and a guesthouse”.

“From the deep crimson walls of the loggia onwards, every corridor, wall and surface of the 15th century building is adorned with what could be loosely classified as tribal folk art”.

APOLLO July 2011 COUNTRY AND TOWNHOUSE 2014

“It’s a very romantic place, unlike anywhere else I’ve been”.

GERMAN VOGUE

“A former monastery in Puglia houses a global art collection and sometimes guests from all over the world ”.

HARPERS BAZAAR January 2014

“ The sombre exterior of this former convent in southern Italy belies the riches within”.

CONDE NAST TRAVELLER

2012

“You can mooch about looking at art, but also swim in the pool and eat delicious food ”.

“The landscape here is wild and natural with cacti and tall grasses, all dominated by olive trees of great age and strange shapes interspersed with lemon and orange trees”.

MAIRE CLAIRE MAISON

ELLE DECORATION December 2013

WORLD OF INTERIORS February 2014

MARIA BEATRICE SPAGONI

BUBEN SOLO

TRACY BOYD

KIT KEMP

ALISTAIR MCALPINE

LEO SCHOFIELD

SUSAN MOORE

ULRICH CLEWING

The Convento di Santa Maria di Costantinopoli is located on the outskirts of Marittima, a small town by the sea situated on the Adriatic coast of the Salentine peninsula, on the tip of the heel of Italy.

8 bedrooms | Swimming pool Gardens | Fully staffed

This unique property is also available to rent exclusively.

Distance from Bari Airport 200km Brindisi Airport 85km Lecce 45km the sea 2km

For further information contact Helen Forbes +44 (0) 1223 460 100 info@ilconventopuglia.com

@conventoculture

www.ilconventopuglia.com