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Historic inns & hotels in Europe

National monuments and other historic buildings—we're talking

manor houses, castles, convents, fortresses, and palaces

here, folks. This is the real thing, a chance to inhabit a bit of European history and call anything from a medieval castle to a Renaissance palazzo to call home.

The good news is that, since many of these are administered by the government or by some not-for-profit group, the prices aren't as astronomical as they might be were these purely private enterprises (and there are plenty of private hotels in fabulously historic buildings across Europe).

Prices tend to be on a par with those of a mid-level hotel in the same area—in other words, what you'd pay for an average three-star property, which means usually between €100 and €200.

Now the organizations listed below all define their purview a bit differently. For example, not all

Portuguese pousadas

are historic properties; some are "Charm" or "Nature" pousadas.

Spain's famed paradors

were once el-cheapo hotels installed in fabulous historic building such as palaces, castels, and baroque monasteries. They're still hotels and still in fabulous structures, but they tend to be chi chi four-star hotels charging pretty high prices. Sigh.

Britain's Landmark Trust

is a U.K. program that manages various historic British properties, everything from manor houses and castles to small islands and even the former homes and apartments of famous Brits.

Some of them are run as museums, others as rental properties, in many cases as both. (And it even manages some properties beyond Great Britain—notably, the

pink house overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome

where the poet John Keats died his Romantically tragic early death; part of it is now a museum, the other part you can rent). Sadly, their web site doesn't give you the goodies on the actual properties; the greedy prats make you buy the catalog.

GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
Paradores - Historic hotels in Spain.
Pousadas - Some 40 Portugal properties.
Landmark Trust - Some 180 historic British properties from manor houses and castles to small islands and the homes and apartments of famous Brits, both in the UK and a handful in Italy (such as the former homes of ex-pat British poets Keats in Rome and the Brownings in Florence).
National Trust - The Web site's "Holidays" section let's you find and book cottages (via a special site), campsites on N.T. land, and B&Bs operated by N.T. properties. There's also a "hotels" section, but they're just standard hotels, not NT ones.

PRIVATE GROUPS & LINKS
Historic Hotels of Europe (Europe) - Links to organizations—both government-run and private—that together represent some 800 historic properties scattered all across Europe.
Abitare La Storia (Italy) - "Live the History" is a consortium of about two dozen historic hotels across Italy, including palazzi, castles, baroque convents, and more.Italy.
Hosterías Reales (Spain) - A quintet of Spanish historic homes-turned-hotels.
Manor Houses (Portugal) - Seriously gorgeous B&Bs in dramatic haciendas, historic mansions, and country homes from ‚Ç¨50 to ‚Ç¨115.
Solares de Portugal (Portugal) - Three categories: Casas Antigas, or "Manors and Stately Houses" (about 46, mostly 17th and 18th century); "Country Estates and Farms;" and the smaller and simpler "Cottages and Rustic Houses"—all renting for €65 to €110.
Erfgoed Logies Nederland - Heritage hotels in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.