Hotel is expected to open in June, 2016
Creating new motives of arrival and prolonging the season are often mentioned when we talk about Croatian tourism and what needs to be done to improve its already fantastic results, and as reported by Turistička Patrola on HTV on December 19, 2015, new hotel which is currently under construction in Vrbnik on island Krk ticks both those boxes.
Vrbnik will be the home of the very first wine hotel in Croatia. It's construction has already started, agricultural cooperative Gospoja owned by family Toljanić, is investing 35 million kuna in this project, and according to their statement, hotel will welcome its first guests in June 2016. This 4* hotel is designed by Idis Turato, an architect from Rijeka and he envisioned it as an object divided into 5 smaller houses connected to the central main building, with those 5 houses representing 5 wine regions in Croatia.
Future Wine hotel Gospoja
Hotel will have 60 rooms and the interior design of each unit will represent an individual wine region. Wine hotel Gospoja is financed with a loan from the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Josip Pulić, director of GP Krk, construction company in charge of development explained why the agricultural society decided to expand their existing wine business "After producing wine for decades, we decided to give all the guests who visit Vrbnik as a part of their wine tour a chance to stay and fully experience Croatia's wine story. Our idea is for each floor of the hotel to tell a story about one specific type of autochthonous Croatian wine, and of course one level will be dedicated to our famous Krk Žlahtina. We will offer all these wines in the hotel and we will offer spa treatments based on wine. This will be a 4 star hotel so it will offer all the comfort modern travellers re looking for including a swimming pool and spacious wellness centre".
Idris Turato, who designed the hotel, commented on the challenge of creating the very first wine hotel in Croatia "When you're designing for Toljanić family you know you have to come up with something original. They are famous for their unique Žlahtina and to be perfectly honest, most hotels today, just like shopping malls, look exactly the same. We wanted to make sure this hotel is different and it will be a town within the town of Vrbnik. It will tell a story about Žlahtina and Croatian wines in general. Hotel will also have a wine museum so every guest will be immersed in a wonderful world of Croatian wines.From what I know, there are similar hotels in France, one just opened in Austria, but this is definitely the first hotel of its kind in Croatia".
Photo credits: Idris Turato webpage, YouTube
