Arabesque is owned by the father-and-son team of Evan Fallenberg (artistic director) and Micha Fallenberg (manager) and staffed by locals. Evan is a novelist, translator and professor of creative writing and literary translation at Bar-Ilan University; Micha is a trained tour guide and adventure sport enthusiast. For them, Arabesque is more than just a charming place to spend a few nights; it is a venue designed to serve the local community through hosting cultural events, promoting local talent, and welcoming artists of all kinds to engage in dialogue through the arts.

Arabesque is a newly restored and renovated Ottoman building in the ancient city of Acre (Akko/Akka) on the northern Mediterranean coast of Israel. Nearly 300 years old but with some stones dating back one thousand years to the Crusader period, Arabesque boasts a Great Hall with a baby grand piano and chef’s kitchen for events; a cozy courtyard with a trickling savil fountain; and three sumptuous suites all with high vaulted ceilings, original stone walls, tile floors, antique furniture, artwork, and all the amenities of a modern hotel room: TV, a/c, comfortable furnishings, a kitchenette. Arabesque is situated in the very middle of the Old City and is only a few minutes’ walk to the suk (market), the Crusader Knights’ Hall, the Templar Tunnel, the Al Jazzar Mosque, the Turkish bathhouse and all the other major tourist attractions. Its central location also means that the experience of a stay at Arabesque is one of being a part of the local community and not apart from it.

Arabesque is located at the center of the Old City of Acre, one of the oldest inhabited cities on earth and a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its colorful market, unique culinary traditions, marina, beaches, museums, festivals, mosques and churches. The main tourist sites include buildings and ruins from the Hellenistic, Ottoman and Crusader periods, such as Al-Jazzar Mosque, the subterranean Crusader city and enchanted garden, Sultan’s Clock Tower, the Turkish bathhouse, the Hospitaller fortress, and the Templars Tunnel. The annual fringe theater festival is the most important of its kind in the country and the city itself is a living museum offering walks that track Crusader, Ottoman, Napoleonic, Jewish or Bahai points of interest, though getting lost in the city’s maze of alleyways is often the greatest treat of all.