Torre del Marqués – the marquis's tower with Three MICHELIN Keys

On the inland slope of a modest sierra between Barcelona and Valencia, in the Aragonese comarca of Matarraña, a restored 18th-century tower lends its name and its silhouette to Torre del Marqués Hotel Spa & Winery. The hotel occupies a beautifully restored 18th-century tower in the Aragonese region of Matarraña, set back on the inland side of a small mountain range between Barcelona and Valencia. The masía at its core was once the country house of the Marqués de Santa Coloma de Monroyo, a nobleman whose family used it as a rural retreat looking down over the Tastavins river valley. Its rehabilitation took more than two years, slowed further by the pandemic, before it reopened as an 18-room hotel, said to have been completed around 2020, with its own organic vineyard, Mas de Llucia, and a restaurant, La Atalaya del Tastavins, built into the old farmhouse. The MICHELIN Guide has given it Three Keys, an extraordinary stay, for a restoration set within a 150-hectare estate of native pine, olive and almond trees climbing a mountainside.

01The house

The masía that stands today dates from the start of the 18th century and passed through the hands of several owners, each adding the tastes of their own era to what is now a heterodox, distinctly under-Aragonese architecture. Its recent rehabilitation leaned on the land itself: the thick walls were raised using tapial, a rammed mix of the estate's own soil and straw, and the building work was carried out by hand by people from the surrounding comarca, using natural materials.

Before it was a hotel, the farm spent years as a stud for showjumping horses, and its internationally approved jumping field hosted major televised competitions in 2006 and 2007. When that venture ended, the present owners, Óscar García and Marta de Goiri, rebuilt the estate as a five-star hotel, naming it Torre del Marqués in tribute to the farm's first owners. The old stables at the entrance now house the hotel's dog rooms and bicycle centre, and the clubhouse that once served the showjumping arena has become its own organic winery. The hotel has belonged to Small Luxury Hotels of the World since it opened.

02Rooms and suites

Torre del Marqués has 18 rooms across Family, Junior Suite, Superior and Standard categories, plus a separate villa with its own pool eight minutes from the main building. Interiors run from compact Standard Doubles to a Family Suite of two bedrooms with its own fireplace, worked in a contemporary rustic style of warm neutrals and natural textures, with the Junior Suite and Family Suite carrying daily access to the spa.

Insider tip

Reached by road from Alcañiz or Morella; the nearest train stations are over an hour away.

Pets are not an afterthought here either: a dedicated Dog Room sits at the old stable entrance, fully equipped with bedding, bowls and an automatic water dispenser. Guests wanting still more privacy can book the estate's Villa, with its own private pool.

03Where to eat

The hotel's restaurant, La Atalaya del Tastavins, occupies bright rooms in the old masía where full-length windows frame the Tastavins valley as if it were a painting. Its kitchen blends respect for Matarraña tradition with wider, more inventive technique, built around a seasonal à la carte and tasting menus centred on produce from the restaurant's own garden and the black truffle that grows locally. Expect Aragonese ternasco lamb and garden vegetables alongside fish brought up from the Ebro Delta, or a tuna tataki ceviche and an aubergine dish finished with smoked sardine.

The bread comes from the hotel's own bakery in nearby Fuentespalda, and the ham carries the Denominación de Origen Protegida Teruel; the cellar runs to more than 65 references from small family wineries of the region, alongside the hotel's own Mas de Llucia bottles. Beyond the dining room, the kitchen also cooks outdoors, in four settings scattered across the farm — the forest, the vineyards, the vegetable garden and a lookout over the Tastavins valley — so a meal can happen wherever the land looks best that day.

04The winery

Mas de Llucia, the hotel's own winery, farms six hectares of organic vineyard on the estate, growing varieties suited to the Matarraña's climate and soil, among them vines planted as far back as 1970. It grows the native red varieties Cariñena, Garnacha Tinta, Bobal and Alicante Bouschet alongside white Macabeo and Garnacha Blanca. The resulting bottles — Lo, Senglar, Saviesa, Plorona and Las Tres Hermanas, each named for one of the estate's plots — are made in a winery installed inside the old clubhouse of the former showjumping arena, in view of the restaurant, with capacity for 20,000 bottles a year, using only grapes grown on the farm.

05Spa and pool

The spa runs to a spring-fed bath, sauna, Turkish bath and treatment rooms, plus a heated outdoor pool for days when the weather calls for the open air. Inside, heated loungers and a bithermal shower surround the thermal water zone, with private massage cabins and individual changing rooms. Access to the spa is reserved for guests aged sixteen and over, open daily from morning into the evening; the outdoor pool, heated through the estate's own biomass boilers, runs through the summer months with a pool bar alongside it.

06The neighbourhood

Monroyo sits in the Matarraña, the comarca often nicknamed the Spanish Tuscany for its olive terraces and stone villages, within sight of the Puertos de Beceite Natural Park. A trail across the farm itself climbs toward the summit of Punta Molinera, cresting above 900 metres with a near-360-degree view back over the comarca and the Beceite massif — the kind of walk the estate's own marquises once rode out to survey their land.

07Making the most of a stay

The vineyard and olive grove are reason enough to book a guided tour and tasting, paired with a menu at La Atalaya del Tastavins. In autumn, truffle hunts head into the holm oak groves hidden among the estate's pine forest, and quad tours run out to Punta Molinera for sunset. Horses still work trails laid down in the farm's showjumping years, now saddled for guests rather than competition, tracing paths past the vines of Mas de Llucia down toward the Tastavins river.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.