Senator

Zamosc is a gem of a town on Poland’s eastern borders; Hotel Senator is a diamond in the rough in the necklace of magnificent Italianate buildings that give it enduring allure and attractiveness. The hotel is just a two minute stroll from the great Renaissance style main square, the second largest and one of the most magnificent in all of Poland. To some the Senator is a “temple of kitsch” to others “one of the quirkiest hotels” you are likely to encounter in Poland. In fact it is both. And it is also a place of warmth and welcome and old world cosiness. It’s cosiness that, that perhaps comes with a deficit of lightness and elegance but which is more than compensated for by the idiosyncratic collision of Gothic, Neo Classical and Tudorbethan furnishings, fittings and statuary that abounds in every niche and corner of this lovable inn. We had an attic room/mini suite (upgrade) on the second floor with a view over the smaller Salt Square (Rynek Solny). It was a delight. Comfortable bed hidden in an L shaped alcove; king sized sofa, large dressing table, acres of wandering space; fine bathroom and a TV which we rarely watched, why would you? We had enormous breakfasts with a huge selection of hot and cold dishes; once in the quirky lower dining room surrounded by alluring nymphs and athletic classical warriors, on other occasions in the more graceful upper breakfast room. Service was always helpful and professional. Staff spoke good English and were endlessly helpful with suggestions as to where to eat in the town and what the most important sights to see were. We had dinner on their advice in several of the magnificent Armenian restaurants on the Main Square. Double rooms cost about €70 with breakfast for two. We considered it fine value. Zamosc itself is a gem; an Italian style town created by Jan Zamoyski (1542-1605) a local nobleman, general and diplomat who was greatly influenced by medieval Italian architecture and town planning when he studied at Padua University. He dreamed of creating a “Padua style” city in his homeland and in 1585 he and Italian architect Bernardo Morando set about building his “citta ideale”; today Zamosc with its magnificent Town Hall and colourful former merchant houses around a square measuring 100 metres by 100 meters is one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. Only Krakow (200 meters by 200 meters) has a larger and more magnificent town square. If there is one chilling place those with an interest in modern history have to visit while in Zamosc it is the nearby “Rotunda” the horrifying Nazi execution site where 40,000 were imprisoned and an estimated 8,000 executed between 1940 and 1944. The museum records the shocking details of the executions and the bravery of those who resisted them; the photographs displayed there are a haunting memorial to one of the darkest chapters of human history. There are several very good hotels in Zamosc. What impressed me most about the attitude of hoteliers to visitors to Zamosc occurred on a night on which the town was staging a spectacular open air carnival in its great Main Square. We had wandered from “The Senator” and were having drinks in the outdoor bar of the “Morandówka Hotel”, one of the many other hotels on the square. It was a magical moment of medieval pagentry. Then a gracious woman, who turned out to be the manager or owner of the Morandówka Hotel, passed by and enquiring where we had come from welcomed us to the city. She then immediately invited us to come inside the hotel and follow her to a 2nd floor drawing room in the Morandówka to have a better view of the carnival. We explained that we were guests at the “Senator” and didn’t want to impose but she wouldn’t hear of it. We were guests in her city and she wanted us to have the best possible experience of the city. So we leaned through the open second floor window and had that spectacular view of the performers. It was another magical moment. And by the way the “Morandówka” is a very attractive, classically stylish, altogether different hotel to “The Senator”. It would be a wonderful place to stay. But it was our karma and our delight to be staying at “The Senator” and to have also shared the friendship and the welcoming hand of another lovely hotel on that night of carnival in Zamosc.