Located at the foot of Mikulov Castle, a fairytale landmark in the Moravian town of the same name (also known as Nikolsburg) in the Czech Republic, the Štajnhaus guest house has recently opened its doors to the public after being thoroughly renovated by Czech studio ORA who have combined the building’s original medieval sensibility with a contemporary aesthetic of ascetic elegance and modernist charm.

Tracing its origins back to the 16th century, the building, which is registered as a cultural monument, has sustained extensive damage throughout its history as well as numerous reconstructions and alterations that had irrevocably altered its original character. Nevertheless, the architects set out to restore as many of the original elements as possible, a cumbersome process that involved continuously revising their design during the construction phase since, as architect Jan Hora explains, "a lot of details had been kept hidden in underlying layers". Thus, under as many as ten different layers, the renovation revealed several types of brickwork and plasterwork as well as old openings and a set of stone steps. The fact that there were no straight walls or rectangular openings to be found made the renovation all the more challenging.