Effendi Hotel, Akko, Ottoman building in Acre, Israel

Beit Shokri, known as the Palace, is a large stone house in the northwestern part of Acre's old city, on Louis IX Street. It is one of two merchant mansions joined by a bridge, the other being Beit Afifi. Its ground floor has Crusader-style cross vaults, and a staircase leads from the entrance down to a basement where Byzantine and Crusader remains were uncovered.

Beit Shokri was probably built in 1768 by Ibrahim al-Sabbagh, a member of a Greek Catholic family, on the remains of a Crusader vaulted structure. In 1870 Odeh Hamar, head of a Greek Orthodox family from Crete, bought it from al-Sabbagh's descendants and turned it into the largest mansion in Acre. The Hamar family lived there until 1948. Restoration for the Effendi Hotel began in 2001 and the hotel opened in 2012.

The building's name recalls the Khammar family, Greek Orthodox arrivals from Crete in 1840 who changed their surname to Khammar, Arabic for alcohol, after founding a distillery. In 1870 Oda Khammar bought the house from the Jamal family, descendants of builder Ibrahim al-Sabbagh, and the family lived here until 1948. A 22-carat gold-flecked fresco of Istanbul, painted in 1889 by Jerusalem artist Saliba Yohanna, marks the opening of the Orient Express terminus there.

The hotel stands on Louis IX Street in the northwestern part of Acre's old city, in a complex of two stone buildings joined by a bridge. The entrance level connects by staircase to the vaulted basement, where Crusader and Byzantine remains are visible. The 12 rooms, wine bar and rooftop terrace occupy 1,350 sq m; the Turkish bath is on the intermediate floor.

The wine cellar belongs to the adjacent Beit Afifi, not to Beit Shokri: its floor is made of potsherds and clay powder that keep the humidity balanced. Excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority found burnt wood dated to the large fire of the Mamluk conquest in 1291. A 400-year-old Turkish bath was uncovered during the renovations on the middle floor.