Hotels and historic properties go beautifully together.
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Travelers love to soak up historical wonders—and what’s more immersive than sleeping, dining, and relaxing inside a historic site?
These types of properties run a large gamut. You can find a boutique hotel at the Palace of Versailles, for example, or keep it simple with a historic hotel that’s hosted travelers for centuries.
Naturally, there are also ‘dark tourism’ takes on historic hotels, which let you shack up at locations with an eerie past. One of the most famous in the United States is the Lizzie Borden House, a bed-and-breakfast set inside a home whose tenants were murdered in a grisly fashion.
But what about a hotel that’s located inside a prison—would you stay there? What if that prison was only recently shut down, too—as recently as 2017? Welcome to the latest luxury opening from HOSHINOYA resorts.
Starting in June 2026, the hotel will open its doors to a prison-turned-luxury boutique hotel stay, which operated for almost a century. As HOSHINOYA puts it, “Former cells reimagined for deep relaxation at this all-suite property.”
Welcome to HOSHINOYA Nara Prison
On June 25, 2026, HOSHINOYA Resorts will open its ninth property in Nara, Japan, in the former Meiji-era Nara Prison. The property will also open on April 27, 2026, for visits and tours.
Reservations have been open since January 20, 2026—meaning you can reserve your spot already. The property has been painstakingly renovated to highlight its Romanesque architectural heritage while adapting it with modern, state-of-the-art amenities.
There’s also a cultural element at play. Nara Prison was one of five prisons built during Japan’s Meiji era, which is when the country began trading and interacting with the outside world. Nara Prison opened in 1908 and was operational until 2017 as a juvenile prison.
The goal of the prison was to house criminals aged 16-26, who would participate in programs designed to minimize recidivism by providing vocational training and violence avoidance education. The prison had a specialty barber shop, which was used to give prisoners real-world skills that would help them find work upon release.
HOSHINOYA’s latest property is focused on the architectural elements rather than the utility of the former prison. From its brick facade to its interior, there’s a lot to appreciate. The prison was built by a Japanese architect in a Western Romanesque style, and was constructed using iconic red brick.
The property was also listed as an Important Cultural Property in 2017, when the prison was shut down. The hotel has since been renovated to include 48 rooms, a reception area, a main lounge, a dining area, and a dining lounge.
There’s also a prison museum that’s open to the public, where you can learn about what made Nara Prison so important to Japan and more about the renovations.
