The American Colony Hotel Jerusalem

The American Colony Hotel Jerusalem

Walk through the arched entrance of the Old Wing at The American Colony Hotel Jerusalem and you are standing in the courtyard built in 1902 as a private residence for a Turkish pasha and his four wives, now shaded and full of flowers around the hotel's signature Courtyard restaurant, in a property that sits on the seam line between Jewish and Arab Jerusalem. That position has made it a working neutral ground for more than a century, the address where UN officers, foreign correspondents and diplomats gather because it belongs to neither side, a role no chain hotel near the city centre could claim. The 95 rooms are spread across the Old Wing, East House, Palm House and Cow Byre, each keeping its own character: Classic Pasha rooms furnished in late-1800s Ottoman style, Deluxe Pasha rooms built as the pasha's winter quarters with private patios overlooking the pool, and suites with vaulted or painted ceilings. Guests can swim in the outdoor pool, book a massage or sauna, work from the business centre, or browse antiques at Barakat next to the hotel's own bookshop. Val's Brasserie keeps a fire lit through winter, and the Cellar Bar and Summer Bar carry the rest of the year. It suits anyone drawn to a guest book running from Lawrence of Arabia and Winston Churchill to Bob Dylan and Tony Blair. It will frustrate guests wanting the Old City's alleys at the door, since Damascus Gate and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are a walk away, and anyone chasing glass-and-marble modernity. What no competitor in Jerusalem has is that seam-line neutrality itself, earned rather than marketed, and it still shows in who checks in. Built in 1902 as a pasha's residence on Jerusalem's seam line, The American Colony has hosted diplomats and journalists, from Lawrence of Arabia to Bob Dylan, for more than a century. Its Pasha rooms and courtyard pool reward that history, not those wanting Old City alleys at the door.