MARRAKECH, Morocco — Winston Churchill invited Franklin Roosevelt here to relax following strategic talks during World War II, and Alfred Hitchcock shot some of "The Man Who Knew Too Much" in the hotel's lobby — which has also been a haunt of the Rolling Stones, Charlie Chaplin, Sharon Stone and many other Hollywood stars for nearly a century.

Now, after a three-year, $176 million makeover, the Mamounia is opening again for business in the oasis gardens of Marrakech in southern Morocco.

A top interior designer has refurbished its rooms in art deco and Arabo-Andalusian styles, chefs have opened restaurants, and a sprawling spa has been added to the 20-acre gardens of palm and olive trees to once again lure the rich and the famous to this hotel set inside the medieval ramparts of a world heritage site.

Built in 1923, when Morocco was a French protectorate, the Mamounia merges the sober lines of art deco architecture with the intricacies of traditional arabesque decorations. Its great marble hall leads to shaded courtyards where the trickle of small fountains echoes amid multicolored tiling.

The pool house copies a 17th-century princely pavilion. Here, carvings in the Moroccan zellige mosaic style are all over the plaster walls, overlooking a 600-square-foot swimming pool filtered with ozone.

Colonnades and corridors reminiscent of the Alhambra palace in Spain lead to the Churchill bar, complete with black-and-white photos of jazz men, a panther-dotted carpet and red leather seating.

"Morocco is probably the only place in the world where artisans can still paint a ceiling exactly like the original 16th-century one," said French decorator Jaques Garcia.

Before the renovation, many tourists flocking to Marrakech would try to pop in for a cup of mint tea and a glimpse at the building, even if they couldn't afford to rent a room. Now the hotel will be more tightly sealed, but manager Didier Piquot says outsiders can still visit if they make a booking at the restaurants.

At the 27,000-square-foot spa, patrons can lie on white couches on a platform propped by gilded columns over the indoor pool.

Deeper underground, the marbled hammam, the Turkish bath, comes with a high-tech power gym, set amid red leather sofas and black ceramic walls that lead to whirlpool baths, saunas, a beauty parlor run by the Shiseido cosmetics brand and a high-end Paris coiffeur.

In the garden of olive trees, palm groves and jasmine bushes, a man on a vintage tricycle distributes ice cream cones. Alleys of finely groomed sand lead to the clay-court tennis grounds, while the pathway to the Moroccan restaurant has been paved so women in stiletto shoes don't damage their heels when they walk to the dining room.

Inside the main building, the hotel offers cuisine created by two chefs who also have Michelin two-star restaurants in France and in Italy.

Most of the 136 rooms and 71 suites overlook the gardens and 12th-century ochre walls circling Marrakech, a tourist magnet listed as a world heritage site by the United Nations' UNESCO agency.

And beyond the desert town, the view stretches to the snowcapped peaks of the Atlas Mountains, a sight Churchill found so soothing he returned time and again to the Mamounia to paint from his room's balcony. One such view, painted in 1935, "Sunset Over the Atlas Mountains," was auctioned in New York for $350,000 last year. Another painting he did of Marrakech in 1948 and later offered to President Harry Truman fetched $950,000.

The Mamounia's luxury comes at a price: $776 to $10,350, depending on the size of the suite and the season — spring and autumn are the most sought after, though it is usually sunny all year round in Marrakech.